No Place for a Lady
No Place for a Lady is one woman’s life story, at once broadly historical and deeply personal.
No Place for a Lady by Thea Rosenbaum is a compelling memoir that crosses paths with history in Germany, Vietnam, and the United States.
Rosenbaum has firsthand memories of many key events in twentieth century history: she hid with her mother from Russian soldiers in Berlin at the end of World War II, she reported from the ground during the Vietnam War, and later she was a European correspondent at the White House. And those are just the highlights. Her memoir reads with earnestness and truth, a story of someone who seemingly has seen it all.
Rosenbaum is a journalist, so her narration is focused and clear; it has a first-person urgency and is centered on action. The dialogue is crisp, concentrated, and realistic, conveying character and tone as much as information. The pace begins swiftly and the story progresses thematically, weaving together Rosenbaum’s life rather than crafting it start to finish—she begins in Vietnam, with her most urgent and vivid memories. She moves back and forth in time smoothly, using simple chapter names that focus on the time or place to keep the story oriented.
While her life experiences are anything but ordinary, Rosenbaum’s story is full of relatable themes such as feeling inferior and like an outsider. She also shares many cross-cultural experiences, particularly with Americans, that give a new look at familiar life for American readers. True to her German roots, she resisted becoming an American citizen for decades, but she realized over time that her perspective had become American. This processing of her own cultural identity may resonate with other immigrants and those who feel as though they have two major, seemingly mutually exclusive, parts to who they are.
Her boldness is a unifying element to the story; in one incident she was conversing with a CIA station chief: “You know they accuse us of a lot of things,” he said. Rosenbaum challenged back, “And sometimes they are true.” The photos show the breadth of her experience, including standing in a bunker in Vietnam and shaking hands with United States presidents.
This book is compelling for fellow journalists, those interested in German history around World War II and its aftermath, those who want to see (or did see) the Vietnam War firsthand, and those striving to forge a personal identity amidst a wide swath of cultural identities and life experiences.
No Place for a Lady is one woman’s life story that is at once broadly historical and deeply personal.
Reviewed by
Melissa Wuske
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
