Marc Bojanowski’s book, “Journeyman” set in a town a lot like Healdsburg
If you live in Healdsburg and you read “Journeyman,” the second novel by Healdsburg native Marc Bojanowski, it doesn’t take long to notice that much of the novel is set in a town a lot like home.
Fire — along with its power to shape and destroy, transform and temper — is a central character in the novel, so it’s no surprise that the town modeled after Healdsburg is called Burnside, but it’s not meant to be a copy of Healdsburg.
Bojanowski said he used a familiar setting to tell a story about change. “The theme of a place changing and the people who live there being left behind by that change, or how they respond to change and participate in it,” is a strong theme in the novel. “The post office fire in Healdsburg,” said Bojanowski, “was a truly cultural event — that kind of spectacle binds people together in ways that an event in the plaza won’t.”
Nolan Jackson, the main character changes in profound ways in the book, but he first presents himself as intractable. Despite growing up in a middle class setting, Jackson cultivates an air of the outlaw loner with a heart of gold, working as an itinerant carpenter, living in a trailer he customized himself, stashing his money in a coffee can, wearing a cowboy hat and using phrases like “I reckon.”
Jackson’s brother works at the local newspaper (Bojanowski was a reporter for the Healdsburg Tribune at one time) and is obsessed with a serial arsonist who is setting fires throughout the community. Bojanowski acknowledges that the idea for an arsonist character came from a real arsonist who plagued Healdsburg a dozen years ago, but noted that his character has its own story.
How Jackson changes, how he observes changes in Burnside and the ever-present role of fire propel the narrative. Bojanowski excels at dialogue and the conversations he has with his brother, with coworkers and the lonely phone calls with the girl he left behind knit the story together.
Bojanowski, 40, was born and raised in Healdsburg. “My parents still live in the house I grew up in,” he said. He now lives in Santa Rosa where he and his wife are raising two children.
Bojanowski is an English teacher at Santa Rosa Junior College. “I love the students,” he said. “It’s a real mix of people, from developmentally disabled to English learners to re-entry students. It’s rewarding, I get to spend four hours a week with them talking about sentences and helping them learn.”
“Journeyman” is Bojanowski’s second published novel. It was chosen as an Editors’ Choice in the March 2017, New York Times Book Review. His first novel, “The Dogfighter,” was also well-reviewed.
“Journeyman” was not an overnight project. “My first draft took about two years, then I worked on it for another six years while I worked on other things — television pilots, screenplays, another novel … I feel proud of this, if I put something out there I want it to be strong,” Bojanowski said.
Bojanowski will read from “Journeyman” at Levin & Company Booksellers at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19.
