We're delighted to welcome Randy Blazak with the print launch of his novel.  Light refreshments will be served.

A couple of hipsters, an opera singer, a homeless girl and a guy who may or may not be an alien navigate rainy Portland, Oregon in the year 2000. They each wrestle with the pressing question of the day; What is the point of hanging around when things seem so bleak? The answer comes from the joy of a great song and the rare glimpse of the sun. The novel is filled with sociological insights, inside references for music fans, snide humor, and good reasons not to spend too much time in a suicidal funk.

The Mission of the Sacred Heart is a rock novel loosely based on a 1976 Electric Light Orchestra record the author thought was a concept album when he was 12 years old. The novel was originally written in 1999 in Portlandia, while Blazak was loaded on Zoloft.

"Some of the book's best moments are the musical performances in the text. Blazak's descriptions of styles from opera to rock possess a reverence that borders on religious, and they color the relationship between Cozy and Lenny (Zak's musician friends) with a tenderness that floats off the page. But Zak's numerous missteps in his fool's quest to win back Petra--everything from post-breakup mixtapes to drunkenly contemplating the abyss below an ocean bluff--are similarly strong moments, even if only because most readers can identify, having themselves been guilty of similar folly at some point in their lives." - Josh Gross, Boise Weekly