The Only Woman in the Room

So well written. Enough description that you can imagine the setting but not used as padding for the main story. Neither is the story drawn out, it moves at such a good pace. Well worth reading

Very enjoyable book.

Brilliant true story and well written

The story was very interesting as far as it went & then just came to an abrupt halt without warning. The suggestion that she was a spy seemed overblown & I found the writing style somewhat annoying. It reminded me of teen fiction with all the squealing that went on. It had the potential to be 5☆ but didn't make it.

It's not a book I would have read otherwise. Made me want to read more widely about her real-life story and check the "facts" against the author's fiction.

Loved the book! Fascinating reading!

Once again Marie raises our awareness of the issues surrounding women and their contribution to the World which is hidden, buried, ignored & dishonoured.

If you like biographies, you will love this book. I couldn't put down. Hetty Lamar had a very extraordinary life.

Es supuestamente una biografía novelizada. Me habría gustado que no estuviera escrita de una manera tan "light". La sentí como una novela para adolecentes.

A must…. for Vienna fans, Hollywood fans,

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

I knew the name but had no idea who she was apart from an inkling she was in show business. She turned out to be a person I could not help but highly revere. READ ABOUT HER !

Interesting story