The Only Woman in the Room, by Marie Benedict

 

Hedwig Kiesler	Hedy Lamarr
Father – bank manager Mother   Friedrich Mandl   Starhemberg – Austrian Vice Chancellor, friend of Mandl Ferdinand – brother   Schuschnigg – Austrian Chancellor   Adolf Hitler   Mussolini   Ada – maid   Laura – new maid, resembles Hedy	Louis B. Mayer Margaret Mayer   Ilona Massey – Hungarian, roommate   Susie – dresser on movie sets   Jamesie – adopted orphan baby boy from Europe Nanny   George Antheil – composer Boski - wife

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       When Hedy was married to Mandl, why was her mother so unconcerned about Hedy’s situation?  She always told Hedy, “A wife’s duty is to her husband” (page 159).  Did knowing that her mother had given up her career as a concert pianist to marry her father help you understand her opinion?

2.       In 1939, when her mother wrote Hedy a letter, did her explanation of why she had always been so hard on Hedy throughout her life seem plausible to you? She wrote, “I sought only to temper your father’s unmoderated adulation and indulgence of you…I did it out of love” (page 205 & 206).

3.       Did Hedy and her parents have a choice regarding marrying Mandl?

4.       Throughout the second half of the novel, Hedy is wracked by guilt that she did not tell anyone about Hitler or do anything to stop him.  Was that possible?  Should she have felt guilty?

5.       After Hedy and George had created their device, George kissed Hedy on the lips. Hedy felt this was a serious “breach of our friendship” (page 257).  Would another person who did not have her background have been as hurt? 

6.       In thinking about the incident above, Hedy came to understand that his behavior was a “behavior ingrained by society in most men” (page 259).  Does this justify his behavior?

 

7.       Were you surprised to learn that the U.S. military rejected Hedy and George’s superior invention only because it was developed by a woman?   How do you think the families of those killed by torpedoes during the war feel after reading this?  Given the times, was it possible for their invention to be adopted?

8.       Were you surprised to find out that Hedy and George’s invention was used in today’s cell phones?  Had you ever heard about her inventions? 

9.       What is the answer to the question about who Hedy Lamarr was on the last page?  Hedy wondered if she was “only a beautiful face and lissome body” or had she “taken the persona to which I’d been relegated and made myself into a weapon against the Third Reich after all” (page 293).

10.   What does the last sentence mean, “I had always been alone under my mask, the only woman in the room” (page 293)?

11.   The note on the copyright page says in part, “The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously.”  What responsibility does the writer of historical fiction have to the facts?  Does the reader have any responsibility?

a.       One example from Wikipedia – She did not adopt a German orphan. The child she adopted was actually her own with John Lorder who would become her third husband.  She lied to her current husband, Gene Markey, about the baby’s origin.

*****

First Semester Success, 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com and wordassociation.com.