GIRL INTREPID

In this memoir, an architect recollects her first 30-odd years, navigating a privileged but bumpy childhood and adolescence before reaching an adulthood in which she realizes her professional ambitions.

Armstrong was 7 years old in 1947 when her parents, Sinclair Howard “Howie” Armstrong Jr. and Barbara Lewis, separated. The collapse of their marriage resulted in the girl’s relocation. While Howie, a physician, moved to Chicago, the author and her mother left Boston’s Beacon Hill for a small, fourth-floor walk-up apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Armstrong was enrolled in the Brearley School, a private girls’ school favored by many of New York’s socially elite families. Although Barbara came from a wealthy family, an inheritance left to her by her paternal grandmother was controlled by her father, Gaffer. He became vindictive when his daughter refused to move back into the family’s Park Avenue apartment. Barbara was a Columbia Law School graduate and had been practicing law in Boston, but she discovered that New York firms were not inclined to hire women other than as secretaries. Howie disappeared for several years, failing to send child support payments. This left mother and daughter quite short of funds for a couple of years. But what they did have was an expansive network of impressive familial and social connections and considerable determination. Armstrong was only 10 when she decided she would become an architect. Readers meet the author in her riveting prologue, which describes how she and Howie weathered the fury of Hurricane Carol aboard his steel-hulled sailboat moored off the coast of Southern Maine. The chapter previews her extraordinary ability to recall minuscule details of events and people from decades past—more individuals than readers will be able to keep track of, despite the helpful opening list of important personages. Even at an early age, she noted the architecture and décor of virtually every space she entered. The author is an engaging, lively narrator who trains her gimlet-eyed evaluations on herself as frequently as on her extensive family, bringing readers inside a three-decade, upscale journey encompassing plenty of captivating adventures and touching self-discovery.

An enjoyable, intriguing, poignant, and joyful account that’s a bit overstuffed.