[stylist] synopsis

[Joe Orozco]

Judith,

It's coming along really well.  I would start off by informing the reader
that that there are two characters so they know not to get side-tracked by
the mention of two girls.  Maybe you could relocate the last paragraph to
the top of the synopsis.  Rephrase it of course so that it reads more
smoothly.

Also, this sentence is positioned rather randomly:

*Pessi learns that her father intends to remarry.  She vows she will never
accept this.*

I think I get the back and forth you're trying to achieve, but it's a little
dizzying.  I would focus on one girl, then the other, and then tie it up
neatly with ominous tones of, "what will happen to these girls who must
struggle to find their identity..."  If I weren't in a rush, I'd give you a
better sample, but I think you get what I mean.

Joe

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org 
[mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Judith Bron
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 5:02 PM
To: Stylist
Subject: [stylist] synopsis

Does this work?  Judith

Jennifer Rabinowitz, unconscious after being hit by a car, 
looks around the strange place she ended up in.  In front of 
her is a corridor that seems to be lit with flickering candles. 
 Suddenly her long deceased mother is talking to her.  
Jennifer, whose life is dismal due to the constant anti Semitic 
derisions by her classmates, wants to stay with her mother.  
But her mother tells her that its not yet her time to stay.  
She has to learn, "To live.  To love.  To hope.  To know who 
you are, and what you are!"  Jennifer tries to change her 
mother's mind, but minutes later slams back into her body, 
aware of the pain.

Jennifer's foster mother, Sheila, spent most of the day with 
her injured foster daughter.  While heading to her car she 
remembers the strange messenger a few months earlier who 
delivered the only possessions left by Jennifer's parents, a 
little book with an inserted paper written in foreign writing.  
The messenger handed Sheila the items and left.  After closing 
the door Sheila ran to her window to watch him drive away, but 
no car appeared on the street or driveway.  She couldn't see a 
man walking away from the house.  Now she thought about 
Jennifer's survival of what should have been a deadly accident. 
 She wondered about the items in her possession that the 
messenger told her to give to Jennifer on her seventeenth 
birthday.  The story begins with all this mystery surrounding 
an orphaned Jewish girl from Curtis Cove, New York. 

 Meanwhile, on the same day in Jenna, New York Pessi Goldberg 
is talking to her very ill mother.  Shrouded in her reclusive 
personality, Pessi disagrees with her mother about getting 
involved with the girls at school.  Pessi insists that it's her 
life and if she wants to be alone so be it.  She stomps out of 
the house like a belligerent child leaving her mother on the 
sofa in the dining room of their poverty stricken home.  

That afternoon Pessi decides to attend a lecture at her school. 
 Her classmate Chavy Levy starts to bring her out of the 
protective shell Pessi has shrouded herself in.  Pessi's life 
is a bout to change forever.  

One morning a few months later Pessi goes to her mother's room 
to help her only to discover a cold motionless body lying on 
the mattress.  Totally bereft Pessi gently shakes her mother's 
remains begging her to say something.  

Heart broken, Pessi now questions the motives of an Almighty 
she has believed in her entire life.  For the first time in her 
life she has her solid faith in the Almighty challenged as she 
tries to overcome her devastating loss.

Jennifer continues to puzzle over her depressing Jewish 
identity.  Eventually her foster mother is helpful in getting 
her registered in an observant Jewish summer camp hoping that 
the camp can teach Jennifer something about her roots and 
identity.  Jennifer returns from camp intent on living as an 
observant Jewess.  Again Sheila is helpful in getting her 
placed with a family in Jenna.  This family doesn't work out, 
and Rabbi Levy, Chavy's father, agrees to take Jennifer into 
their home.  

The lives of Jennifer from the public schools of Curtis Cove, 
and the lives of Pessi and Chavy from an observant Jewish 
Girls' school in Jenna become entwined forever.  

The small book and letter left by her parents has become a 
fixture in Jennifer's backpack.  She eventually begins to learn 
the Hebrew language that both the small book and letter are 
written in.  She is able to learn from the letter her Hebrew 
name is Breindle and her mother Channah.  

The day before the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashannah, the high 
school principal Mrs. Newman asks Jennifer if she has a Hebrew 
name.  She tells the principal her Hebrew name.  The principal 
asks her how she knows this and Jennifer pulls the small packet 
out of her backpack.  The principal pales when she sees these things. 

 Later that day the principal asks Rabbi Levy to put the packet 
in a safe place.

Pessi learns that her father intends to remarry.  She vows she 
will never accept this.  

Unbeknownst to Jennifer, the letter has a financial section.  
Criminals get hold of this information and kidnap Jennifer from 
a Jenna street.  They take her to a hotel room, tie her up like 
a hunted animal and the criminals proceed to have a drinking 
party.  When her abductors fall into a drunken slumber Jennifer 
works off the ropes binding her arms, slides off the bed and, 
braced on her now free hands begins hopping to the door.  

With her legs still tightly bound she hobbles into the hall 
where another hotel guest brings her into his room and calls the police.

Eventually the contents of the letter containing Jennifer's 
true identity are disclosed to her.  But she has a hard time 
dealing with her newly revealed identity.  She can't deal with 
the fact that she is not the same person she has lived with for 
the past 17 years.

Both Pessi and Jennifer have to overcome problems with their 
identity throughout the novel.  Both have to deal with drastic 
changes in their lives.  Both characters have to come to an 
understanding of who and what they are in a world filled with 
danger, fear and self doubt.  Painfula questions experienced by 
teenagers everywhere.       


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