Reviewed by Ian Lipke
J.R. Lonie is a Sydneysider who is a screenwriter, author and playwright. His book, The Woman in the Spotlight is the novel of interest to this reviewer today. His story The Woman from Saint Germain was published in 2019, and his three novellas, Acts of Love, were published in 1996. Other short stories have been published in various anthologies.
Lonie’s screenwriting credits are growing in number and include co-writing the feature Kokoda, (directed by Alister Grierson) and A Place to Call Home. His work as a script editor includes Japanese Story, Beneath Clouds, Dogwatch and No Man’s Land. John has had plays produced by State Theatre Company of SA, NIDA and St. Martin’s Theatre among others. He was Co-Head of Scriptwriting at AFTRS from 2000 to 2008.
The author’s skill in screenwriting is revealed in his novels. In Spotlight it is manifested each time the focus falls on Monika. Visual imagery is particularly strong, while music and song play prominent roles.
The Woman in the Spotlight has been described as a gripping and dazzling historical novel, set in 1930s Berlin. The heroine, who is rarely out of the reader’s immediate mind, carries the novel with her personality and forthright decision-making that never fail to fascinate.
This is a novel of war. Most war novels have a hero who pursues an outcome dictated by a Supreme Body charged with conducting a clearly defined aspect of the battle. The fighting has a purpose i.e. to force the enemy into submission. This story is every bit as dangerous to the participants as any wartime event. However, its difference from the traditional approach is vast.
Within these pages lies a gripping, utterly absorbing novel about survival and art as defiance. It is housed, not in some foreign land or wide, deep ocean, but on the 1930s Berlin stage. With Germany in chaos, Monika Varády, a young Bavarian actress, arrives in the capital with high hopes – to one day, just maybe, be a great star of the stage and screen. But, initially unaware of the stranglehold, forced increasingly with vigour by the rise to power of Hitler and his brutal Nazi regime, Monika observes the theatre scene falling under the control of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
The stage has become a minefield of political machinations that Monika, in love with a Bolshevik Jewish actor, must now navigate. As her star rises from the smoky bars of the demi-monde to the city’s prestigious stages, most dangerous of all is Goebbels himself who takes a more-than-artistic interest in her. Monika is convinced that as a practising Catholic she must follow the tenets of the bishop of Rome. One of these is to offer friendship and succour to her fellow man, including the Jews.
While staying true to her beliefs and to those she loves, Monika must employ all the skills of her craft to outwit Goebbels and, with her close friends, to resist the regime’s attempts to rewrite German theatre and culture. She decides that her place is in Germany, despite the danger to her own life. She believes she can be most effective by following a policy of ‘hiding in plain sight’ – even in the glare of the spotlight, or on the stage, or in the home of Goebbels himself.
Monika is a very human person. The author brings this to our attention in at least two episodes. While there are dozens of examples within the story the farewell scene between Monika and Kurt on page 358 could be classed as representative. Comments like ‘a rich, slow-burn thriller that grips the heart and shakes the soul’ (Blanche D’Alpuget) and ‘Monika Várady is a poster girl for our own troubling decade, as much as her own … The very inspiration we need’ (Luke Devenish, author of The Heart of the Ritz) assert Monika’s humanness.
When everyone is watching, survival will be her greatest performance.
The Woman in the Spotlight
(2025)
by J.R. Lonie
Harper Collins
ISBN: 9781460767535
$34.99; 432 pp