The Reformer's Apprentice: A Novel of Old San Francisco

The Reformer's Apprentice opens in San Francisco in 1875, when Frieda, seventeen, is living a double life--aspiring "Elevated Feminine Spirit" and unpaid, overworked cook at her father's kosher boardinghouse. Lonely and miserable, she consults her feminist group leader who offers lessons in loving everyone. Her misinterpreted efforts result in near rape. Rescued and shamed by her father, she finally agrees to marry. Not the bum who tricked her, nor the compliant boarder her father chooses, but chance acquaintance, Bennie Goldson, founder of an Arizona-Sonora border outpost. "A touching novel of Jewish life in 1870s San Francisco." San Francisco Chronicle