In You Can Say You Knew Me When, author K.M. Soehnlein pulls the literary equivalent of a one-two punch. He’s followed up his stunning debut novel, The World of Normal Boys, with a masterful sophomore effort, and proves that he’s no one-trick pony.

The novel centers on Jamie Garner, happy with his life in San Francisco producing talk radio programs during the dot com boom. Then his world is turned upside down when his father dies. Their relationship, which was estranged at best, haunts Jamie as he wonders who his father really was and why he could never accept Jamie for who he is. A discovery while cleaning out his father’s attic sends Jamie on a quest to reconcile the man he thought he knew with the man that led a very different life before having a family: A young man who wanted to paint and read Kerouac, and who was ready to flourish in the San Francisco of the ’60s.

“I started off thinking I was writing a story about San Francisco in 1960,” Soehnlein explained. “I was interested in how the Beat Generation, especially popular writers like Jack Kerouac, influenced a generation of young people – particularly young men – who saw On the Road and The Dharma Bums almost as instruction manuals for how to live a free-spirited life.

“So the character of Teddy [Jamie’s father] was one of those young men who went to San Francisco following those myths. And at the same time, the writings of a lot of the Beats are either openly homosexual, like Ginsberg’s, or else have this erotic attention toward other men under the surface, like Kerouac’s. Then I got interested in the idea that Teddy grew up to be someone very different – a conformist and a homophobe. How did he wind up like that? In trying to figure out that, I came up with the idea that Teddy’s story would be discovered by his son, Jamie. And the more I explored that direction, the more Jamie took over the story – and along with him, his contemporary world of dot-com San Francisco.”

At the core of this book is the insidious nature of obsession, as Jamie punctures the heart of darkness with each miscalculated step he takes. His characterization is a delicate balancing act of the flawed protagonist, who, despite his faults, can still garner the reader’s sympathy.

“This was something I struggled with from the start,” Soehnlein continued. “It might be one of the reasons why it took me almost five years to finish the book! I wanted Jamie to be a kind of anti-hero – someone who makes mistakes and behaves in ways that are not always responsible or even admirable, but who would also be someone a reader could relate to.

“I was interested in the way a lot of us don’t ‘come of age’ until we’re well into adulthood. We have this extended adolescence, and it takes us most of our 20s to sort out who we are and how we want to behave in the world. Working with this idea of an anti-hero involved a lot of decisions, big and small, along the way. For example, at a certain point it became clear to me that showing how Jamie was valued among his circle of friends allowed you to see why he might be worth caring about, even when he’s messing up.”

The city of San Francisco, much like in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series, seems as much of a character as the human ones in You Can Say You Knew Me When. And the emotionally charged structure of the story could draw the parallel that perhaps Soehnlein is drawing from an autobiographical wellspring; the emotions laid upon the page are raw, realistic and are undeniably the heart that beats life into the book.

“The places where my books are set, and the emotions that arise for the characters, are usually taken from my own life experience or from my friends,” he said. “But the plots take off on their own. That’s the fictional territory – making everything move along in a way that builds toward something. I grew up in suburban New Jersey, which is where I set The World of Normal Boys and the beginning chapters of You Can Say You Knew Me When. And I’ve lived in San Francisco for over 10 years now, so that gave me the setting for You Can Say. Jamie’s experience of watching lots of people his age get rich off Internet ventures while he was struggling with a freelance life in the arts is something out of my life. But most of what happens to Jamie just came to me through my imagination.”

Being a published author two times over has changed some of the struggling-artist aspects of Soehnlein’s life.

“It’s sort of changed everything and nothing,” he said. “On a practical level, getting my book published made it possible for me to get work as a creative writing teacher [at the University of San Francisco and San Francisco State University], and to get certain freelance jobs that might have been less available if I didn’t have a published novel to show for myself. But in a lot of ways my life is the same as always – it’s a balance of making a living and tending to my relationship and having a certain social life that keeps things fun and interesting.

“Maybe the biggest difference is the most abstract one – my sense of myself as an artist has been given a big boost, a certain confidence to try new things, to push myself in my craft. Having said that, I’d add quickly that even without the publishing industry’s validation, a writer is someone who writes regularly and with dedication. You have to find a way to do that even when things don’t go your way.”

Soehnlein weaves such a fine tale that it leaves readers salivating for more page time with the characters he creates – the conduits for different emotional landscapes to traverse and conquer. So, is there any chance of revisiting these finely drawn portraits of human frailty?

“For now, none, although you never know,” he said. “I like leaving readers to fill in for themselves what might happen to the characters after the final page. There are an infinite number of possibilities based on how each reader understands and interprets the story! That said, I’ve always imagined I might return to the Mackenzie family in The World of Normal Boys, but with a focus on Ruby, Robin’s younger sister, who didn’t get a whole lot of time on the page. I have a lot of thoughts about where she wound up.”

And speaking of The World of Normal Boys – Soehnlein’s bittersweet portrayal of life on the outside set against the backdrop of the wild yet inhibited milieu of the late 1970s – there is a film adaptation in the works.

“Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who between them have a pile of awards for their documentaries, like The Times of Harvey Milk, Common Threads: Stories from the AIDS Quilt and The Celluloid Closet, have optioned The World of Normal Boys,” Soehnlein said. “They want it to be their first feature-length fiction project.

“They brought me on to write the screenplay, which was an interesting process. We worked really closely together to make the novel into a story for the screen, which has its own challenges – starting with, what do you cut out of the story because it simply can’t fit? Right now they’re trying to find a production company that can provide financing. It’s a difficult, slow process. I’m optimistic that someone’s going to see the value of this project and help us raise the budget, but it’s remarkable what an uphill battle it is.”

And what does the future hold for this talent, as his literary star shines brightly?

“I’ve been writing short stories since I finished You Can Say,” Soehnlein said. “They’re sort of all over the place – a way to try out new voices or characters or techniques without the pressure of committing to a full-length novel. I’m beginning to write what will probably be a new novel, but I feel like every time I talk about it I jinx it. So I’ll just leave it at that for now.”

To see K.M. Soehnlein in person, catch him on his book tour, which hits Obelisk Bookstore on Nov. 3. Obelisk is located at 1029 University Ave. Call (619) 297-4171 for more information.