Third Novel

Then We'd Be Happy

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Then We'd Be Happy is a tale of lower-middle-class friends trying 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.

The friends include a would-be chef, a flirtatious (and unfaithful) waitress, a single mother with a tattoo of Bart Simpson on her shoulder, and an easy-going young man who must make some hard choices.

Living among the ones and zeros of California's Silicon Valley—the coders and big-bucks brainiacs—they band together to pay rent and enjoy whatever pleasures they can.

Theirs is a story about fortune cookies, class warfare, disease-fighting neuropeptides, strawberry rhubarb pie, and what it will take to be happy.

Praise for Then We'd Be Happy ...

"A refreshingly unorthodox tale of the challenges facing modern, lower-middle-class 20-somethings."

— Kirkus Reviews

“In Then We'd Be Happy, Al Riske leads us on an episodic journey with scenes that seem to be as effortless in their grace and simplicity as they are eternal in their weight and meaning.”
— Greg Bardsley, author of Cash Out and The Bob Watson

“Reading Then We’d Be Happy is like riding a train through an unknown countryside. The scenery flies by, framed by telephone poles into small vignettes, each of which tells a small story on its own and hints at what lies ahead. Riske is a master at giving glimpses and leaving hints, at employing implication and innuendo, and creating enormous spaces with very few words. Once you start your journey through these pages, you will be unable to stop until you arrive at its terminus, amazed that a trip over so much terrain required such little effort and provided such a rich reward.”

— Douglas Edwards, author of I’m Feeling Lucky

“In Then We'd Be Happy, Riske employs sparse prose, almost poetic pacing and perfectly crafted dialogue to elevate this tale of 'ordinary' life to something extraordinary.”
— Joel Postman, Goodreads

"Al Riske has an exceptional talent for immersing a reader in his characters' experiences, emotions and motivations — in this case, a group of young people, no longer children but not quite fully functioning adults. It's an engrossing read, mostly because who doesn't remember a time of treading water and waiting for your life to begin."

— Rachel Canon, Goodreads