The Only Woman in the Room
Marie Benedict
She was beautiful. She was a genius. Could the world handle both? A novel about Hedy Lamarr. Hedy Kiesler is lucky. Her beauty leads to a starring role in a controversial film and marriage to a powerful Austrian arms dealer, allowing her to evade Nazi persecution despite her Jewish heritage. But Hedy is also intelligent. At lavish Vienna dinner parties, she overhears the Third Reich's plans. One night in 1937, desperate to escape her controlling husband and the rise of the Nazis, she disguises herself and flees her husband's castle. She lands in Hollywood, where she becomes Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But Hedy is keeping a secret even more shocking than her Jewish heritage: she is a scientist. She has an idea that might help the country and that might ease her guilt for escaping alone—if anyone will listen to her.
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0If you choose to read only one historical fiction work this year, choose The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict. Prior to reading this book, I had no idea who Hedy Lamarr was and I'm ashamed of that fact after having finished it. She was a strong, powerful woman that does not nearly get the credit that she deserves. We hear of Marie Curie, Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, but quite rarely, if ever, do we hear of Hedy Lamarr and the amazing contribution she made that has led us to such luxuries as Bluetooth, GPS, and of course, Wi-Fi.
Edited 2/6/19 after revisiting the book: 3.5 out of 5 stars
I liked The Only Woman in the Room at first but the longer I sat with it... the more the ending bothered me. I really liked the beginning and thought that it was moving well and I was interested, but then... the latter half of the book seemed very rushed and Hedy's intelligence and her scientific knowledge seemed to come out of nowhere. She went from being a token in the room to suddenly knowing how to create a frequency jumping device for missiles. Honestly I would rather have had 50, even 75 more pages added to the book so that way more of that could be fleshed out. I also didn't like how Hedy seemed to just... give up at the end. She was such a spitfire woman with such fortitude and moxy and then the ending just seemed so.. uncharacteristic for her. To quote one of the ladies I discussed this book with, it seemed as if "the author did just what everyone else did to Hedy throughout her life: she dismissed her."
0This was alright. The parts that focused on the changes sweeping through Europe and the impending war were interesting and engaging, but the parts that focused on Hedy's personal life were kind of boring.
The story could have done with some restructuring -- we spend the first half focused on Hedy's first marriage to an arms dealer, but by the time we get to the most interesting part, we're nearly at the end. Hedy lived an incredible story as an emigrant, Hollywood actress, and inventor. This story focused on her mainly as a movie star, but I was most interested in her life as an inventor.
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