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Rendezvous
Rendezvous by Rose Franken
251 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1954
About the author
Rose Franken
60 books8 followersRose Dorothy Lewin Franken was born on December 28th 1895, in Gainesville, Texas and was one of the most popular and influential Jewish woman writers of her day. She was a celebrated Broadway playwright and director, a Hollywood screenwriter and a popular novelist whose fiction touched a sympathetic chord in American women. Franken's work reflects her personal struggle with traditional gender roles and her ambivalence about balancing domestic and career commitments.
Novelist and short story writer Rose Franken crossed over into the theater with the surprise hit of her play Another Language in 1932. Her sharp-eyed observations about the American family gave tang to her domestic dramas Claudia (1941) and The Hallams (1947). Social concerns such as antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, and war fueled her other plays such as Outrageous Fortune (1943), Doctors Disagree (1943), and Soldier’s Wife (1944).
Franken was married to William Brown Meloney who helped bring the Claudia stories to the radio. They had three sons.
Novelist and short story writer Rose Franken crossed over into the theater with the surprise hit of her play Another Language in 1932. Her sharp-eyed observations about the American family gave tang to her domestic dramas Claudia (1941) and The Hallams (1947). Social concerns such as antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, and war fueled her other plays such as Outrageous Fortune (1943), Doctors Disagree (1943), and Soldier’s Wife (1944).
Franken was married to William Brown Meloney who helped bring the Claudia stories to the radio. They had three sons.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
April 8, 2026
Chapter one is masterfully written, creating a picture of a town and the many people living there and the ways they're interconnected in an absorbing way. It is indicative of the skill of the rest of the writing.
The book follows Josephine, a young French girl who gets the opportunity to work as a nanny to an American family and their children. Although it is a hardship for her family to lose her in their pastry shop, they make the sacrifice to give her the opportunity. When the job ends, she comes home with plans to marry her childhood sweetheart, to meet her brother’s new wife, and to settle back in with her parents. Things don’t go entirely as planned. Her mother hates Pierre’s wife, a German girl he met during his military service. Josephine does her best to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she proves time and time again to be deceitful and averse to housewifery.
The book ends in a melancholy way that sticks with you. For a book that has been completely forgotten in the internet age (I had to add it to Goodreads), it holds up very well.
“One does not learn to use one’s mind and heart without living. And reading is a poor substitute for living.”
The book follows Josephine, a young French girl who gets the opportunity to work as a nanny to an American family and their children. Although it is a hardship for her family to lose her in their pastry shop, they make the sacrifice to give her the opportunity. When the job ends, she comes home with plans to marry her childhood sweetheart, to meet her brother’s new wife, and to settle back in with her parents. Things don’t go entirely as planned. Her mother hates Pierre’s wife, a German girl he met during his military service. Josephine does her best to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she proves time and time again to be deceitful and averse to housewifery.
The book ends in a melancholy way that sticks with you. For a book that has been completely forgotten in the internet age (I had to add it to Goodreads), it holds up very well.
“One does not learn to use one’s mind and heart without living. And reading is a poor substitute for living.”
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review