BLAZE PASCAL: And the Courage of Being

Hold me close at the
Khyber Pass between
world and ground of being.

Kiss me my love
at the border between
sacred and profane.

Stand by me in
the drone-zone between
fact and form.

Such are the verses of the hero Blaze Pascal, and it is they that propel this novel forward. The author Kenneth Stephens says that the novel must be read slowly. It is philosophical and lyrical and musical throughout. Every page calls for a deep kind of thoughtfulness about the mystical life. His first novel, Blaze Pascal and the Courage of Being, is set in Los Angeles.

It is philosophical, lyrical, and transcendent, written in free modernistic verse. Blaze Pascal is a philosopher and broods on the brokenness of the world. He is drawn to a Platonic mysticism of truth, compassion for all beings, and the courage to be in the face of non-being. But he is a lonely old soul who loves music and dancing. He tells no one of his night visits to the big city, the city of music, movie stars, and mean streets. It is tension between the bight road of philosophical reflection and the dark road of human desire that drives the novel forward. It is a novel of big ideas, East and West. It risks pushing the boundaries of mainstream expectations in astonishing ways.

Paperback: 310 pages
Publishing date: May 13, 2018
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1732074291
ISBN-13: 978-1732074293
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches

Kenneth D. Stephens is originally from India, where he attended Christian missionary boarding schools in the Himalayas. He came to the United States to go to theological seminary, after which he went on to do his Ph.D in philosophy. His memoir The Meaning of These Days: Memoir of a Philosophical Pastor was published by Wipf and Stock. He is an active member of the African Wildlife Foundation, the Wilderness Society, and other environmental organizations, and resides on the outskirts of Los Angeles County.