The Only Woman in the Room (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series)

I'm snowed in , making this book readable in one day . Treasure it . Has all the right stuff ..romance ,glamour, history ,good guys, bad guys , AND... I learned a lot of new words (thank you , dictionary .)

This is a beautifully written book which you draws you into a real life historical biography. 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.

Great book. Amazing woman, Hedy LaMar! So intelligent!

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.

Marie Benedict's historical fiction rendition of the story of Hedy Lamarr is a fascinating read. Most readers will be astonished to learn of the famous Hollywood actress's contributions to an invention to improve the accuracy of torpedoes launched from submarines. Benedict divided the book into two parts. Part One dealt with young Hedy Kiesler's successful acting career on the stage in Vienna and her marriage to a controlling and wealthy munitions manufacturer, who sold arms to both sides of a conflict. Forced by her husband to abandon acting, Hedy was frequently at lavish parties where the highest political powers of Austria, Italy, and Germany were present, including Mussolini and Hitler. Being of Jewish descent, she heard enough to plot her escape from her unscrupulous husband. Part Two of the book followed Hedy from her safe haven in London (where she met Mr. Mayer of MGM Studios) to Hollywood, where she became the famous actress. She constantly worried about her mother and Jewish friends in Austria (which was annexed by Germany) and was especially incensed when a German sub sank a ship carrying Jewish children to Canada. She was fascinated by torpedo technology and teamed with a fellow musician to invent a device that could prevent the enemy from jamming radio signals that rendered torpedoes ineffective sixty percent of the time. Although the device was ingenious, it was largely ignored at the time, primarily because women (especially beautiful actresses) were not taken seriously as inventors. In the decades following, her patent was recognized and her work laid part of the foundation for cell phone and WiFi technology. I highly recommend this enlightening story of a Hollywood star who was so much more.

I remember watching Hedy Lamarr movies with my grandmother when I was a kid. I had no idea what her backstory was. This book is very well written and interesting and I would recommend it to my friends and family.

I enjoyed this book. It kept my interest and gave an in-depth view of what life was like back in the day.

World War II was a major event, but the individual stories a re so important. The stories of women who were not taken seriously because of their gender are a part of history that we are starting to pay more attention to, though evidence sometimes is tough to find. Benedict gives us an idea of what Hedwig Keissler lived. I quite enjoyed the book.