SECRET WALTZ

Five teenagers grapple with questions regarding sex, identity, and morality during the tumultuous and transformative years of the late 1960s in Boren’s novel.

In suburban Wisconsin in 1966, young women are expected to follow a certain path—one of marriage, motherhood, and obedience. Hiding a secret pregnancy while dreaming of attending college on a science scholarship, Sonya Morrow has a difficult choice to make. Meanwhile, friends Leo Meitka and Emelia Demski enjoy the simple but fraught lives of teenagers. They explore the woods by the lake, go to school, work, and attend church functions together; they also grapple with their changing bodies and individual autonomy in a small and stubbornly rigid world. Leo, imaginative and musical, wants to break away from his drunken father and emotionally volatile mother. Emelia, uncertain and fierce, is trapped between her burgeoning sexuality and her desire to be a “good girl” in a society that punishes women who dare to be anything else. After a traumatic and horrifying event, each teenager makes choices that alter the courses of their young lives, culminating in a poignant and thoughtful reflection on what it means to grow up in a time of both great repression and great expression. The narrative primarily alternates between the perspectives of Sonya, Leo, and Emelia, with small interjections from Dean, a young child connected to Sonya, and Elisa, the mentally unstable younger sister of Emelia. Each character is distinct, well developed, and thoughtfully crafted—Boren excels in conveying the tortured thoughts of each personality, as when Sonya laments, “She used to be smart and flip. Quick. Too quick, one teacher had written on her report card long ago. Now she was simply too fast.” The novel’s powerful exploration of repression, sexuality, trauma, and identity is uncomfortable, tragic, messy, and real. Boren boldly lays bare the naked realities of growing up and facing seemingly unsurmountable challenges. Sonya’s, Leo’s, and Emelia’s stories will stay with the reader long after the novel’s thoughtful final words.

A courageous tale of growing up and standing up.