York Community High School graduate Erik Fassnacht is about to debut his first novel that he says is based on his experiences growing up in Elmhurst.
Fassnacht’s “A Good Family,” published this month by St. Martin’s Press, follows the fortunes of a father, mother and two adult sons as they navigate changes in their lives and in the family. He will introduce the book and sign copies Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. in Anderson Bookshop Downers Grove, 5112 Main St.
The story, set in Downers Grove, combines narrative drive with humor, insight, and powerful family dynamics, according to a publisher’s note.
In an e-mail, St. Martin’s editor-in-chief George Witte said, “I fell in love in love with it on the first page.”
Fassnacht, who now lives in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, said he placed the family in Downers Grove in part because he saw the town as similar to Elmhurst.
From York, Fassnacht, 32, went on to get an undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. After teaching high school English and creative writing for a short time, he and a friend decided they really wanted to pursue writing and enrolled together in a master’s in fine arts program at Columbia College in Chicago.
“The first semester was difficult,” Fassnacht said. “Then I wrote a short story that became the first chapter of the book. From the second semester on, it was really full steam ahead on this book.”
Even with a relatively quick start, Fassnacht said the process of getting the book published took about five years, including three years of writing, a year of working with a literary agent and another year working with editors at St. Martin’s.
All of those stages involved rewriting and revisions, much of it done during his final year at Columbia.
“The last year is the thesis year,” he said, explaining that the aim is to produce a thesis that is publishable. He approached Audrey Niffenegger, the author of “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” and then on the Columbia faculty, to be his thesis advisor.
“By the time I got to her, I’d already written most of the book, so we worked on revisions – we revised four or five times,” he said.
After what Fassnacht called an “excruciating wait,” the book was picked up by a literary agent and eventually accepted for publication by St. Martin’s, part of Macmillan Publishers.
In a review on the Macmillan website, Niffenegger called the book, “an intense, compassionate and very funny book … a sharply observed, deeply satisfying novel.”
During his time in Elmhurst schools, Fassnacht remembered three teachers who had a special impact on his development, including Trilby Porter, who encouraged creativity when he was in her kindergarten class at Edison School.
Fifth-grade teacher Don Powers also stands out as very motivating and able to spot potential. Fassnacht remembers Powers’ reaction to an assignment to write a creative journal entry. “He told me after class, ‘the sky’s the limit.'”
And a philosophy class at York taught by Ron Chambers really opened his mind to bigger ideas and expanded his world view, said Fassnacht, who also attended Sandburg Middle School.
Chambers said he was happy but not surprised to hear about his former student’s first novel, given his writing ability in high school. “I remember Erik well. He was a writer even then.”
All three teachers are retired.
Fassnacht noted that teachers may never know what seeds of confidence and inspiration they are planting.
“So many little moments that teachers have,” he said. “You never know as a teacher what little thing will travel decades and be a lasting motivating moment.”
Fassnacht said the choice of Anderson’s for the introduction of “A Good Family” was a natural given the fictional Brunson family’s base in Downers Grove and his own experiences attending book signings at the chain’s long-closed Elmhurst store.
Some of the book’s action takes place in the Ballydoyle Irish Pub & Restaurant, across Main Street from the bookstore, he said. No word yet on whether the pub will feature a Brunson burger for the occasion.
Megan is a freelance reporter.
