The Red Devil: To Hell with Cancer--and Back [Hardcover]

Katherine Russell Rich (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0609603213 | ISBN-13: 978-0609603215 | Publication Date: September 21, 1999 | Edition: 1

The Red Devil is a bold, wickedly funny tale of illness, joy, and the improbable triumph of love in the midst of despair.  

When Katherine Russell Rich was thirty-two, a newly divorced, high-powered magazine editor living a glamorous life in New York City, her ten-year (and still counting) ordeal with cancer began. Soon she was bald, scrambled, and living in two worlds simultaneously: the world of the ill, filled with treatments, exhaustion, and doctors as focused on avoiding malpractice suits as on healing; and the "normal" world, where dating, career, vacations, and 401(k) plans still matter.

Alternately wise and wise-cracking, Rich serves up vignettes from the surreal world only the ill know: the MS patient who crashes her support group, the alternative practitioner whose gifts come from extraterrestrials, the doctor who fires her patient, dating while bald, working without a brain, and smoking with cancer. Here is a woman who has been brought to her knees by disease several times, only to get up and learn to dance, with grace, even.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nothing's off limits in Katherine Russell Rich's gutsy account of her breast cancer treatment, from harsh insights about her relationships ("I was a stiff-lipped, bloodless, manners-obsessed WASP. He was Ricky Ricardo in a bad mood") to the wrenching details of her disease's progression to stage 4 status. For example, the tumors break through bone and into her spine, making her bones crack from within: "After months of straining against its leash, the fury of pain broke free and ripped into me as I bent down, slashing through my back, tearing into flesh, pressing without mercy onto bone.... I struggled to make myself stand, and felt--heard--something rip in my back." She holds back nothing--the pain of her tests, the apathy of many of her health providers, the intimate details of relationships, and the necessary wit ("Cancer humor is like the Zen laugh; it's a way of gathering back forces, a means of breathing in absurdity, darkness, and pain and blowing them out in one great joyous guffaw."). You follow her journey from being meek and fearful to the kind of "kick-ass cancer patient" she comes to respect. This is a riveting book that will change your understanding of what it's like to be treated for--and live with--cancer. --Joan Price

From Publishers Weekly

Diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, Rich, currently a senior editor at Allure magazine, recounts how, over the past 11 years, she has survived a lumpectomy, radiation, several protocols of chemotherapy and hormones, a bone marrow transplant and alternative healing techniques. Her sharp eye for detail and caustic sense of humor (she refers to her ex-husband as Ricky Ricardo in a bad mood) serve her well in this gripping account. Navigating the medical universe of a cancer patient by the seat of her pants, Rich became dissatisfied with several medical professionals before she finally found a physician who had her best interests at heart: her first breast surgeon (male) had been prepared to operate without doing a mammogram until her mother intervened; another oncologist (female) did not return her phone calls and consistently undermined her until Rich finally got the message that she was no longer interested in treating her. Rich also explores the difficulties that having advanced cancer caused in her personal life: she was fired from one job, and a serious romance that had brought her a great deal of happiness ended. Three years after her bone marrow transplant and one week after her mother died, her cancer recurred. Although Rich suspects that her cancer is somehow connected to emotional loss, she evinces a terrific determination to go on living. She is now involved in a combination of alternative treatments and chemotherapy that her oncologist is convinced will stabilize, if not cure, her disease. Anyone who reads this feisty memoir will cheer her on. Agent, Elizabeth Kaplan, Ellen Levine Literary Agency. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (September 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609603213
• ISBN-13: 978-0609603215
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

KATHERINE RUSSELL RICH was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She's the author of The Red Devil and Dreaming in Hindi and has written for the New York Times, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Slate, and O, the Oprah Magazine, among other places. She's received a New York Foundation for the Arts Award, and fellowships at the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writer, MacDowell and the Corporation of Yaddo. She teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

website: www.katherinerussellrich.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hey Oprah, Here's your next book club book!, February 11, 2000

By 

E W Puddle "eeclwa" (FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Devil: To Hell with Cancer--and Back (Hardcover)

Katherine Russel Rich is an excellent example of a strong womanwho has a serious story to tell. Breast cancer is scarey enough for meto think of, but after reading this remarkable experience, it is definitely something I would NOT wish on my worst enemy. The terrible experiences she suffered through weren't only caused by her cancerous body, or the medications pumped into her, but by other people and their unbelievable reactions to her and her disease. I laughed. I cried. I got really mad that someone could go through such a time. I feel Katherine is a part of my family now. I'm eager to hear more. I hope and pray for her complete recovery, both physically and emotionally. She has touched my heart and soul through her words. Everyone should read this book. Maybe more people would be sympathetic towards cancer patients and survivors if they did. I never quite realized what it all meant until reading her story. END

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching and ironically humorous, November 26, 2000

By 

Sara (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Devil: To Hell with Cancer--and Back (Hardcover)

I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May of 2000; I am seventeen years old. Although this memoir deals with breast cancer, I still found it extremely helpful, funny, comforting, sad, etc. It illustrates the experience of cancer as not only harrowing, but as a learning experience. Ms. Rich attacks her disease with truth and strength. I recommend this book to ANYONE, involved with cancer or not.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Story, April 16, 2000

By 

Jean C. Lyon "Jean" (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Red Devil: To Hell with Cancer--and Back (Hardcover)

This book was recommended to me by my sister, a breast cancer survivor. She said it was the best book she had read about a woman with breast cancer. My sister is correct. Katherine Russell Rich has hightened my awareness of the breast cancer experience. Every health care provider should read this book, especially physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, especially if they work with cancer patients. Unlike others who have reviewed this book, I not only could "put it down," I had to put it down often. It was a story so powerful and emotional, I could only take it in parts, but it delivers a very important message. Katherine Russell Rich, thank you for writing and sharing your story.