Marie Benedict: Only Woman in the Room (2019, Hodder & Stoughton)
256 pages
English language
Published Dec. 28, 2019 by Hodder & Stoughton.
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.
This felt light, and the complete lack of bibliography has me wondering exactly what parts of this novel I can trust. Now to go find a more substantial book about this subject....
I found the story of Hedy Lamarr, which I didn't really know prior to this novel, completely fascinating. Not just a film starlet, Hedy was an Austrian Jew, married to a fascist warlord prior to escaping to the US where she invited frequency hopping. It's a story of transformation from resignation and despair to claiming agency. But I think I would have rather read an actual biography than a fictionalized pseudo-biography. I don't really enjoy real-person fictionalizations and I found Benedict's dialogue quite twee.
