Synopsis
The Mission of the Sacred Heart is a novel that follows a group of young creatives, a homeless girl and a visitor, who may or may not be an alien, through life in Portland, Oregon. Their journey centers around the themes of love and suicide and the crucial question; Why stick around? Blazak began writing The Mission of The Sacred Heart when he was 13, in his bedroom in Stone Mountain, Georgia, while listening to an album by the Electric Light Orchestra called A New World Record. He believed it was a concept album about opera singers and aliens. It wasn’t. Blazak returned to the idea in 1999 when he was suffering from depression and placed on anti-depressants after a failed suicide attempt. Along with the original ELO themes, the writing was an exercise in exploring committing suicide is so difficult, even in a gloomy city like Portland. Portlanders saw it as a love letter to their city and its struggle with Seasonal Affect Disorder. Music lovers found the rich descriptions of rock and opera as compelling as the music itself. One reviewer on Amazon UK, wrote, “Blazak balances well his philosophical musings, which succeed in making one think, and hilarious dialogue and narrative that left me laughing out loud on several occasions. The pace of writing is quick and clever and book evokes tenderness and feeling, along with thoughtfulness and humour.” His writing style has been compared to the likes of Nick Hornby, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Robbins.
About the Author
Randy Blazak was a Professor of Sociology at Portland State University from 1995 to 2015. He earned his PhD from Emory University in 1995 by completing an extensive undercover study of Nazi skinheads. While he was in graduate school, he also worked in a record store, as a music writer, as a manager of a successful rock band, organized poetry readings in Atlanta and published the monthly poetry zine, The Shakey Table. Since moving to Portland, Oregon in 1995, Blazak has become a nationally known expert on hate groups and youth culture. He has published numerous articles, book chapters based on his research. His first book was published in 2001, Renegade Kids, Suburban Outlaws (with Wayne S. Wooden, Wadsworth Publishing) and his second book, Hate Offenders (Praeger Publishing), was published in 2009. He regularly appears on local and national television programs, including Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor (which he refers to as his "4 minutes of shame.") He has also published short stories and two novels.
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