Annotation
Del's lived in Los Angeles for seventeen years, bouncing among foster homes. Smart, sharp-tongued, and a master mimic, she's fed up with her world and with being Del. So she's changing her name and leaving both herself and L.A. behind -- until her escape lands her in an all-day traffic jam.
Fast-forward eight years. It's opening night for the one-woman show Del has written and is starring in -- a show called Breakout about a Los Angeles traffic jam.
As the novel flashes between Del's present and future, we get a backstage pass into this young playwright's psyche, watching her life being transformed into art, heartache into comedy, solitude into connection. And, finally, anger giving way to acceptance.
Characters
| Name | Del |
| Gender | Female |
| Traits | Runaway |
| Foster child | |
| Name | Franco, Elena |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupations | Playwright |
| Performance artist | |
| Trait | Successful |
| Genre | Fiction Coming of age Psychological |
| Topics | Teenage girls Foster children Runaways Search for a better life Social isolation Personal growth Self-acceptance Epiphanies |
| Setting | Los Angeles, California Santa Monica Freeway |