Dan Juday’s memoir Waltzing A Two-Step is a humble and compassionate look at his formable years. Born a few years after the second world war, Dan experiences a peaceful and happy childhood in rural Indiana, moving frequently before the family settles on a rural area of land named Springwood in Clinton County, Indiana. The Juday family were devout Catholics and enrolled Dan and his siblings in Catholic schools until the move to Springwood made public school the only option. There Dan does his best to fit in but his status as a minority catholic in a mostly protestant community in the 1950s brings its own challenges. For Dan, his struggles don’t stop there. From a young age, he knew there was something inherently different from himself that didn’t align with what the world around him expected, and as he gets older and enters adolescence, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore.
By the time Dan reaches college, the country is facing a lot of cultural changes from the growing political and racial tensions of the 1960s. Young men around him without deferments are being drafted to fight in Vietnam. As he progresses through his undergraduate courses, Dan continues to struggle with finding his place in the world and finding a suitable partner his family would approve of. Almost by fate, a counselor suggests he switch his minor to Spanish. Dan soon finds a sense of belong with a group of international students and soon decides to study abroad in Spain. While at the airport, he meets a fellow student named Ricky and embraces the growing desire to live truthfully in a world that is still a long way from being accepting.
Waltzing A Two-Step is a unique memoir in that Dan’s thoughts and feelings are rarely the focus. He uses his ability as a strong observer to tell his story through the people and places that surrounded him in his life. Through his quiet observation of the world, he sees the simplicity of life growing up, but as the 1960s bring large cultural shifts, Dan has his simple worldview increasingly challenged. His struggle to find a sense of belonging is a quintessential part of adolescence and emulates that complex experience throughout the memoir. Dan’s journey of self-acceptance of his sexuality will also be relatable to any reader who has experienced similar challenges.
Juday focuses on the themes of family, faith, and self. He dedicates a section of the book to each with a final one, tying them all together as a sort of reckoning. One thing that really stood out while reading Waltzing A Two-Step was how people who maybe only be there for a brief moment in your life can have some of the biggest affects in the end. The most beautiful and often bittersweet moments of the book are people that are only there in passing. The best example being the immigrant family that live in the apartment above Dan in New Jersey and welcome him into their family when he needed one. It’s a beautiful message about life to embrace the people around you and treasure them as you journey through the trials of life.
Dan Juday’s Waltzing A Two-Step: Reckoning Family, Faith, and Self is a coming-of-age memoir that is a must-read. A compassionate journey of self-acceptance that follows Dan Juday from the rural communities of Indiana, across Europe, and among the East Coast searching for a life well lived.
Published version