Remembering My Sister Irma

Irma taught me how to do the Twist in the kitchen of our house on Satsop Street in Shelton.

She used to sunbathe on the roof of that house with Annemarie by climbing out their bedroom window.

Irma once tried to force me to eat artichokes when I was a child but finally relented.

I believe she was the first person I ever played tennis with, at Kneeland Park in Shelton (though it could have been Annemarie).

When I was in grade school, she tried to tame my hair with Dippity-do.

I also remember her teasing her hair and waxing her upper lip.

In 1967, Irma played “Little Bit o’ Soul” by the Music Explosion over and over on her portable stereo. 

She bought me my first fish sandwich at the A&W on Mountain View—it was a revelation!

She was the only person I ever knew who owned a sunlamp—so she could work on her tan during  Washington winters when we were growing up.

Irma drove me and my brother Harold all the way to Seattle to see our first concert—The Monkees—though she did not attend.

She introduced me to the pleasures of tomato, onion, and black pepper on an open-faced sandwich. 

And she was the one who got me hooked on tacos—though it was bound to happen anyway.

Irma also loved German deli meats, cheeses, hard rolls, and above all pickles.

She drank Coca-Cola in the morning.

She once put a nail in a glass of Coke and left it overnight because someone told her Coke would dissolve the nail. It did not.

Irma seemed to walk as fast as most people run.

She continued to call me Freddy, my childhood nickname, long after I switched to Al (short for Alfred). I kind of liked it, though. It reminded me of who I was.

“Genuinely pleasing”

“This bird’s eye view of a life makes for a genuinely pleasing reading experience.” 

—Kirkus Reviews

Me and Not Me is a mix of memories and imaginings that chronicle the experiences—real and not real—of a novelist, friend, lover, husband, traveler, fool, and masked conjurer called Al.

Through stories, anecdotes, observations, fantasies, dreams, poems, and other thoughts, the narrator creates an intimate picture of life beyond the merely factual.

Join Al, Annie, and a diverse cast of characters as their lives intertwine in scenarios that reveal more than what happened … or didn’t actually.

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Tight, Simple, and Elegant Prose

In Combustible, we get to enjoy everything there is to love about Al Riske’s work. Tight, simple and elegant prose that cuts to the heart of the story (and its deeper essence). Friendships stretched and tested with the development of a new dynamic. Lives on the brink of transformation. Real people trying to make sense of their lives.

Pages that fly before you.

An ending you never could expect.

I loved this book.

— Greg Bardsley, author of Cash Out

Coming of age ...

"Combustible is a wonderful story ... The author did a great job of bringing each character to life ... I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light read with a satisfying plot and interesting characters." 

— Kristi Elizabeth, San Francisco Book Review

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Imagery

Barefoot girl in a backless dress

Streetlights on wet pavement

The shadow of a small plane flickers

across the contours of the grassy shoreline

Long-haired boys and short-haired girls

A blue Adirondack chair by itself on the lawn

Wind-blown palms  through mosquito netting

Red flowers on a black background

The smell of chlorine and Coppertone

A big-breasted blonde in a black bikini

Passenger jet streaking over black hills in a twilight sky

A white blouse with black buttons

Red sweater in a black-and-white world

Eyelashes wasted on a boy

Cliche curtains ruffled by a lacy breeze

Three in One

This three-in-one volume, now available on Amazon, contains the following novels by yours truly:

Sabrina's Window 
On a chilly morning in Taos, New Mexico, a 17-year-old paperboy breaks the window of a 31-year-old hair stylist — an accident that marks the beginning of an instant, inexplicable bond between them. In the course of one high-desert summer, Joshua and Sabrina share confidences, intercede in each other’s love lives, go on a date that scandalizes the town, and confront questions of fidelity, desire, and the nature of love. 

The Possibility of Snow 
This story traces a once promising friendship between college roommates in New England. Steve is eccentric, slightly paranoid, and too perceptive for his own good. He knows the difference between what people say and what they do. Neil is reflective, sincere, and not as together as he seems. There’s not much he’s sure of anymore. They know each other very well and understand each other not at all. 

Then We’d Be Happy 
In this Silicon Valley tale, lower middle-class friends try to fashion futures out of whatever opportunities they can find. Opportunities to make money. Opportunities to be together. Opportunities that fall apart. Opportunities that must be put back together, no matter what.

Dylan at Work

More Blood, More Tracks is a revelation.

The limited edition boxed set invites us to  follow the evolution of a masterpiece — Blood on the Tracks — from the first tracks Dylan recorded with just his guitar and harmonica in New York to those he laid down with a rollicking band in Minneapolis three months later.

The six discs in this remarkable collection include, in chronological order, all 87 takes that have survived (82 from New York and five from Minneapolis).

Along the way we get to witness the many ways in which Dylan experimented with the pacing and phrasing of each song — the results often brilliant but in different ways.

The New York sessions ended in what everyone thought was a finished album — indeed copies were circulated to reviewers — but Dylan was having second thoughts. Rightly so, as it turned out. The five tracks from Minneapolis, essentially recorded live in the studio at the end of 1974, boost the energy level of the whole enterprise.

Without them, Blood on the Tracks would still be a great album, but not the masterpiece it became. 

The delay also gave Dylan time to further refine his lyrics. Consider, for example, "If You See Her, Say Hello."

In New York, he sings: "I knew it had to be that way. It was written in the cards. But the bitter taste still lingers on. It all came down so hard."

On the final version, he sings: "Whatever makes her happy, I won't stand in the way, though the bitter taste still lingers on from the night I tried to make her stay."

Much better, right?