Alexandra Aldrich

Alexandra Aldrich begins her memoir with a brief Astor history, concentrating on Astor orphans (the last Astor family descendants to reap the benefits of the estate).

Margaret Astor Ward (1838–1875), married 1856 John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877)
Margaret Chanler died of pneumonia in December 1875
John W. Chanler died at his "Rokeby" estate also of pneumonia, on October 19, 1877.
Their 10 children were raised at their parents' estate in Rokeby located at Barrytown in Dutchess County, New York.
They were the original eccentrics of the family, leaving their descendants "the house, its history and contents, and a sense of entitlement and superiority"

Alexandra's father, "despite an Ivy League education and five languages acquired while traveling in Eastern Europe (where he met his wife), could not hold a steady job."
Her mother was a bohemian polish fiber artist, who thought she was marrying into a wealthy family.
Aldrich states, “money was the only thing we hadn’t inherited.”

Her memoir is concise and pertinent...sometimes distressing and painful and often humorous.
As the memoir ends at age 14, she leaves for boarding school and the reader feels , with some reservation, that there is progress to follow.
Will we have a sequel?

The NY Observer has an interesting comment
"Ms. Aldrich’s first book, reads like a cross between Jane Eyre and Running with Scissors"

★ ★ ★… (meer)