The women's liberation movement, had it been consulted, would have coached Ms. Durand in how to gain traction in a man's world when she suffered the misfortune of being born a girl in 1943. No one likes a chauvinist parent, especially when this parenting collides with the reality of two older brothers going on to architectural school after high school graduation, and she's sent off to stenography school to learn shorthand so she could "take a letter."
In this endearing, heartwarming, and often witty, self-deprecating memoir of a teenage girl's struggle for traction-and more poignantly, a teenage girl's search for personal acceptance through parental acceptance-Ms. Durand takes the bull by the horns. Dad could not grasp the importance of education for daughters back in the '60s. But enjoy the read, the honesty, and the humor. Invest your heart and soul in this journey of one woman's struggles to gain traction when so many other lovelies were stuck in the mud or treading water at high tide.