The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Paperback – August 6, 2019

Another review is not needed, but I will feel better if I get some observations off my chest. First off, let me say the book was excellent – a straightforward style bringing characters and events directly into my living room, a quick and interesting read as one might expect knowing the success of the author. I suspect I’m not giving much away at this point when I go on to say my initial reaction in finishing the book is rage, not so much in response to the attitude toward women as rage at stupidity. After years of teaching the psychology of women, and being a woman, my emotion in that department has settled down to a complex mix. But the stupidity! Perhaps exaggerated by the author, perhaps not, the story of rejecting a clearly valuable, potentially life-saving, even victory-creating invention simply because of prejudice against the inventor rests on a firm history. Just one more example of advantages lost because of the narcissistic need to perceive oneself as superior to a whole class of people.I was also gripped by the question on p. 75, essentially the same as I raised after my 1951 summer in Europe, “How could Hitler’s anti-semitic brand of fascism take hold and spread amid such revelry?” Potential answers are frightening as reflected in Papa’s (p. 95) fear after “suspension of the democratic constitution…by the devoutly Catholic patriotic front (p.92)” that “Austria will become an authoritative regime not only in practice but in name.” Benedict’s presentation of the insidious growth of horror is clear and powerful. At the same time I was drawn into the portrayed mind-set of Hedy’s father who supported her marriage to Friedrich Mandl as a protection against the anti-semitic activism he predicted would come. And I couldn’t help but feel the realism of Mandl’s amoral immersion into the world of the absurdly rich, especially those whose wealth was accumulated through the sale of arms which, by nature, depend upon the waging of war. And whether or not the portrayal of Hedy’s imprisoned life and ultimate clever escape had a basis in fact, it did indeed reflect the “truth” of the limited life of a beautiful woman.To tell the truth, Hedy’s whole story reflected the difficulty of being a beautiful woman whose nature beyond appearance is basically ignored by others, and potentially even by herself. The author saves Hedy from that self-negation by emphasizing her quiet curiosity and intentional accumulation of knowledge. In fact, we readers might ask ourselves, in regard to our prejudice, how unnatural it felt to equate her beauty and acting career with the fact of her apparent genius

This is a beautifully written book which you draws you into a real life historicalbiography. Classic movie fans may know of the work of actress Hedy Lamarr but her real life story is more compelling and fascinating than any on the silver screen.

What an amazing book! As an attorney, the author has marvelous command of the English language. She is also descriptive, however, in a sometimes unusual and poetic manner. Written in first person, the book follows the life of the person we know as Hedy Lamarr due to her beauty and Hollywood fame. But I learned that there was so much more to her. Her young adult experiences were intertwined with the early stages of Hitler's reign in Germany, the development of WWII, and her home country of Austria during that time. She was clever and intelligent, but only acknowledged for her beauty. How she survived that time in her life is an amazing story, unfolding like a thriller. I was sadly unaware of Lamarr's contributions to society until I read this book and I'm grateful for the knowledge I gleaned. It is a well written, engaging, and thought provoking novel. Benedict writes with great depth, compelling dialog, and tremendous insight. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, in Hollywood, in Hedy Lamarr, and especially in women's work and struggles in a patriarchal society. Thank you, Marie Benedict!

It cannot be overstated that the subject and narrator of this book -- the incomparable and sublime stage and screen actress Hedy Lamarr -- has one of the most improbably fascinating stories one could tell, and this book does the reader a great service in making Miss Lamarr's incredible story more widely known. As with the best in historical fiction, THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM leaves me wanting to find more primary sources and biographies of Hedy Lamarr's life and times, so that I might know this remarkable woman in more detail. But it's in the telling of such an amazing tale that I found this book a bit lacking.Put simply, to tell this tale with any true depth of emotional credulity it needed to be much longer and more fleshed-out than it was. The book is PACED as a thriller, and there it succeeds; I kept turning pages well into the night, especially in the first half, to see how Miss Lamarr would navigate the tangled webs of marital and political intrigue in which she found herself ensnared. But as a piece of historical fiction rooted in the narrator's need to prove herself as something more than just a pretty face, I couldn't find the depth I needed to connect Hedy's eventual emotions -- especially her guilt at leaving Austria at a crucial time in its history for the glitz and glamor of Hollywood -- to her first-person character. The breakneck pace of the first half has a smoky noir sensibility perfectly suited for its subject matter; but that pace, by definition, leaves out a more inward-focused narrative that could help explain Hedy's later conflicts once the plot settles into its less-frantic second half.** Mild Spoilers Ahead **The first half of this book is a cracking read, full of fascinating political machinations tied to the very fate of an Austria hanging between Italy's burgeoning fascism and Hitler's thirst for reunification and conquest. This had me riveted, as Hedy juggles duty to her family, her often violent arms-dealing husband, and her country. Her adoring father -- whose insistence that Hedy grow up reading about politics and science clashes with her disapproving mother's sense of propriety -- puppeteers Hedy into a union with Austria's wealthiest man, in an effort to save them all should Hitler succeed in unifying Germany and Austria and bring with him the purging antisemitism of the Nazi party. Oh, did I forget to mention Hedy and her family are Jewish? That's because, as a reader, I often felt like the story neglects that point, too; I found myself wanting to fear for their safety as the looming threat of Nazism pressed against Austria's borders, but Hedy's narrative nonchalance -- a sort of, "Oh, yes, we're Jewish!" casualness that is never given any real weight or substance -- never made this a worry.By the novel's second half, Hedy spends a good deal of time internalizing her guilt over fleeing Austria with a head full of secrets that may have aided the Allies in preparing for war with Hitler, which left me rolling my eyes a bit. With no convincing countervailing forces to stop her, Hedy could easily have visited the War Department for a quick debrief and been back on Sunset Boulevard for tea, or at the very least dumped everything she knew into an anonymous letter and sent it to FDR COD. But I think once the second half saw Hedy safely to American shores and thus lacked any physical threats, it needed an internal conflict to propel Hedy's actions. This is probably all entirely accurate to Hedy's true story, it just doesn't make for terribly compelling narrative in a historical thriller.The writing here is solid and efficient, if sometimes repetitive; I often got the feeling that Ms Benedict had written individual chapters in silos and then stitched them together without a second or third draft to smooth the transitions together. Hedy will tell us something in one chapter and then repeat that thing almost verbatim in the next, not trusting us to remember. By the last third of the book I felt like there was a downhill plunge to get it finished, and many plot points both small and large -- her adopted refugee child; her many post-marriage relationships; her film career itself -- are left hanging for us to sew up ourselves. An epilogue set in the late 90s (Hedy died in 2000) in which she looks back over the totality of her career and its effects on American culture and technology, might have been useful to sum it all up for us.Ultimately I wanted more of and from this book. There's an incredible and fascinating story in its heroine, one that should be told and told often. It's a fun, quick read that should keep you engaged from start to finish; I just wanted more.