The Shreveport Times

“’I wanted to convey in the book and story that everybody has a different path in
life and the path you have may take you in unexpected directions,’ she said. ‘But
it’s what you have to go through to come out on the other side to find yourself.’”

The Narcolepsy Network

“Ms. Przekop has not only accurately captured the hallmark symptoms of
narcolepsy and their presentation; she has created a character that is both self
aware and self-accepting of her disorder and the way it has shaped her life and
decisions.”

ABERRATIONS
Does Anyone Really Live A Normal Life?

At first glance, Aberrations is the story of a young woman who learns to live
with her narcolepsy and who struggles immensely to understand how her mom
died when she was born and to discover who her mother really was. But
Penelope Przekop’s debut novel moves insightfully into a whole other
dimension, showing the reader how each of us lives a life of aberration, that we
each have some kind of stigma or conflict or handicap to overcome. We also
discover that having the strength to first seek out the truth and then to live with it
can be quite challenging.

Aberrations, with lively, revealing, intimate dialogue, takes us inside the heart
and mind of Angel Duet, a troubled 21-year-old narcoleptic who suspects she
hasn’t been told the complete truth about her mom but doesn’t realize that her
entire life has been anchored around lies. Told her mom died during childbirth,
she grew up with just her dad, Frank. Both of them suffered a depression or a
longing for Angel’s mom. While searching for mysteriously guarded answers
about her mom, she learns a shocking truth that alters her entire being. In her
struggle to find and accept the truth and to gain control over her affliction that
often fogs her world and provides a pass-out escape route when life gets too
difficult, she turns to newly found friends at a college summer job. She’s
introduced to a dizzying realm of experiences, including homosexuality, drugs,
and adultery that further obscures her reality.

To truly awaken, Angel must accept a truth she could never have dreamed up.
Once she does, she realizes that sometimes the gifts we receive are not what we
want and only in time do we see their full worth.

Penelope addresses the following

• How we uncover the truth about ourselves – and wonder if we really know how
to handle what we come to learn.
• How we react once we learn the truth about others – and why the life of
another never seems as bad or as serious as our own.
• How we come to accept life’s aberrations, where certain events or
personalities or things make us unique, and come to define who we are.
• Just what defines a mother or father, especially when it comes to
adoption, step-children, or raising another’s child.
• How singular events can alter the course of many lives.
• How the mental illness of one can impact the lives of so many others.

Aberrations is a novel that questions so many things, and at the same time,
actually delivers answers. It touches some of the deepest issues regarding family,
self-identity, acceptance of others, love, and truth.

Aberrations, which takes place a generation ago, in the late 1980’s south,
features the struggles of several interesting characters, including:
Angel - seeks endlessly to know her mother while suffering from narcolepsy.
Tim - a gay man Angel befriends at a job; his family doesn’t know his secret.
Kimmy – A 26-year-old virgin who befriends Tim and Angel.
Frank – Angel’s confused dad who harbors several major secrets.
Mac – Angel’s sex partner who is married to someone else.
Scarlett – a lesbian fling of Angel’s who symbolizes mom to Angel.
Carla – a step-mom figure to Angel who seeks to ground the insane around her.

While exploiting some of the more controversial aspects around southern culture,
Aberrations challenges our assumptions. Can sleeping with a married man lead
to happiness? Is experimenting with drugs beneficial to us? Can one have a child
out of wedlock and still raise a normal family?

Aberrations is an edgy, coming-of-age story that reveals how our coping

mechanisms can only get us so far before we’re forced to finally confront our
reality. Perhaps the author knows firsthand about how to overcome one’s
aberrations.

Parallel to her storyline, Penelope’s real life mother suffers from mental illness.
Penelope spent many years hoping to break through and to enjoy a normal
relationship with her. “I realize now that I may never find the mother I grew up
wanting,” says Penelope, “but the woman who taught me to dream, to believe in
miracles, and to stretch myself is longing for me. As I move steadily forward in
my successful marriage and career, she continues the constant struggle to come
back for me, to live in reality. She never meant to leave me behind.”

Aberrations challenges the status quo and shows that sometimes you need to take
an unconventional path to succeed. Like Angel, who has an unplanned college
pregnancy, Penelope too had a child while unwed and in college. But both found
their road to happiness through motherhood, each seeking to correct the
relationship they longed for but could never have with their own moms.

Penelope has missed her mom for a long time. When the author was six years
old, her mother left her at a gas station. She forgot about her, but came back.
Penelope was sitting on the curb, calmly waiting for her mother’s return. When
the author was seven, she remembers talking to her mom through a bathroom
door, trying desperately to stop her from taking her own life. At nine, Penelope
accompanied her mother to exorcisms and mental health clinics. By twelve,
Penelope was her mother’s confidant; listening as the mom pined over a man she
loved who was not her father, her husband. Penelope remained strong. She
calmed her mom’s fears and held her when she cried.

Penelope’s writing surely awakens the reader, reminding us to reflect, to question

things, to explore life in our minds. Her characters, in the height of an urgent
moment, manage to explore what’s really happening – and not happening,
simultaneously. They seem to stop time, allowing them to analyze what’s going
on and then to inform themselves of what to do while suspenseful action unfolds
rapidly around them.

One of the themes of the book is how sometimes seemingly bad things that a
person experiences, whether they bring it on themselves or not, can actually be
exactly what they need to metamorphose into something new and better.
Penelope guessed it’s not such a creative message but thinks that even though
most people will admit that adversity and mistakes make us stronger and wiser,
they still have trouble embracing these experiences as gifts.

Aberrations shows us we can overcome our past, confront our truth, live beyond
a lie, and not let our self-perceived handicap hold us back from pursuing a
normal life.

Publication Data: Aberrations: A Novel by Penelope Przekop; Greenleaf Book

Group; July 1, 2008; Trade Paperback; 336 pages; $14.95; ISBN: 978-1-
934572-03-0

Contact Information: Planned Television Arts

Brian Feinblum 212-583-2718 feinblumb@plannedtvarts.com