Author: Marie Benedict
Published: January 8th 2019 by Sourcebooks Landmark
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Genre: Biographical Fiction
When you begin this book and realize that it is not a biography or memoir -- the telling of the story in the first person will be a bit off-putting.
Part one drags on with an in-depth history lesson and a look at Hedy (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) Lemarr’s early life as a stage actress who is in hiding after appearing in a scandalous film. At nineteen, to appease her family, she becomes the wife of an influential armaments dealer known as the Merchant of Death. Outsiders do not see him for the angry controlling man that he is, yet Hedy knows all too well who this man is behind closed doors and if she does not use her manipulative mind, she will forever be trapped by his brutality.
As the second part of the book rushes to its conclusion, including a perfunctory and downplayed semblance of a “gee-I-have-an-idea for an invention” dialog. An idea comes to Hedy that involves an untrackable or jammable frequency-hopping signal that could guide torpedoes during wartime. An idea that could save countless innocent lives if only the men, who made the decisions, did not discount it solely on the basis that a woman had come up with it. A discovery that was so revolutionary that it was an impetus to today’s cellphones (wi-fi). As I finished the book, I felt that author Marie Benedict did as much disservice to Hedy Lemarr, by toning down this innovative idea, as any man that refused to see beyond her looks.
To be honest, I do not know what point the author was trying to make. Was Hedy Lemarr a beautiful woman that might have also been intelligent? Or was a gifted intelligence hidden behind a silver screen-worthy face? Why were more comments made about her looks than there were about her brains? Beauty was the foremost concern in this book and not once was there a real or imagined character willing to see beyond the façade that paid the bills.
Part one drags on with an in-depth history lesson and a look at Hedy (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) Lemarr’s early life as a stage actress who is in hiding after appearing in a scandalous film. At nineteen, to appease her family, she becomes the wife of an influential armaments dealer known as the Merchant of Death. Outsiders do not see him for the angry controlling man that he is, yet Hedy knows all too well who this man is behind closed doors and if she does not use her manipulative mind, she will forever be trapped by his brutality.
As the second part of the book rushes to its conclusion, including a perfunctory and downplayed semblance of a “gee-I-have-an-idea for an invention” dialog. An idea comes to Hedy that involves an untrackable or jammable frequency-hopping signal that could guide torpedoes during wartime. An idea that could save countless innocent lives if only the men, who made the decisions, did not discount it solely on the basis that a woman had come up with it. A discovery that was so revolutionary that it was an impetus to today’s cellphones (wi-fi). As I finished the book, I felt that author Marie Benedict did as much disservice to Hedy Lemarr, by toning down this innovative idea, as any man that refused to see beyond her looks.
To be honest, I do not know what point the author was trying to make. Was Hedy Lemarr a beautiful woman that might have also been intelligent? Or was a gifted intelligence hidden behind a silver screen-worthy face? Why were more comments made about her looks than there were about her brains? Beauty was the foremost concern in this book and not once was there a real or imagined character willing to see beyond the façade that paid the bills.
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