If you think these are hard economic times then consider the plight of Alexandra Aldrich who lived in the Astor Mansion with no food in the house. Her new book The Astor Orphan is a wonderful debut memoir from this woman who is a direct descendant of John Jacob Astor. In The Astor Orphan Alexandra brilliantly tells the story of her eccentric, fractured family; her 1980s childhood of bohemian neglect in the squalid attic of Rokeby, the family’s Hudson Valley Mansion; and her brave escape from the clan. Aldrich reaches back to the Gilded Age when the Astor legacy began to come undone, leaving the Aldrich branch of the family penniless and squabbling over what was left. Think Bouvier -Beale in Grey Gardens and you get the picture. Alexandra says: “I enjoyed keeping the myth alive that I lived in a mansion. I didn’t want to bring anyone home snd show them that I really live on the third floor and the front of the house is a museum.” It is a fascinating story and a great glimpse into the life of a New York family. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that bring this faded world into focus, The Astor Orphan is written with the grit of The Glass Castle and set amid the aristocratic decay of Grey Gardens.
