Season in Hell [Paperback]

Marilyn French (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 1999

In 1992, Marilyn French was told she had one year to live. A smoker of 48 years she was diagnosed as having cancer of the oesophagus, a cancer which is almost always fatal. Five years on, having battled with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, a heart attack and her back breaking, she is very much alive. And - astonishingly - her body shows no sign of cancer. A SEASON IN HELL is a remarkable, unsentimental, life-affirming journey from an indomitable woman who brought the fighting power she has always brought to the war between the sexes, to the war that for a while raged from within her.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Marilyn French, author of My Summer with George, The Women's Room, and Her Mother's Daughter, learns at the beginning of this memoir that she has esophageal cancer. (A smoker for 46 years, she had ignored friends and doctors who implored her to quit.) She is told that one survives metastasized esophageal cancer. A Season in Hell is French's personal story of her journey through the nightmares of aggressive cancer treatment, seizures, a two-week coma, kindhearted nurses, and uncompassionate doctors. One told her not to get her hopes up when her tumor disappeared, and a neurologist said (prophetically?), "Doctors hate writers; they always say horrible things about us." It is also French's story of triumph--because she succeeds in conquering the cancer, though she emerges from the struggle far from well, with "just about every system in my body [damaged] by chemotherapy or radiation." Readers share the worst and the best with French, and by the end of the book get to know this woman, feel a part of her humanity, respect her courage, and cherish her circle of close friends (including Gloria Steinem) and relatives who gave her so much when she needed it most. --Joan Price --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

From 1992 through part of 1996, French endured a horrific battle with esophageal cancer and a "virtual return from the dead." Every possible health-related indignity is recounted here as she tells the reader far more about her hellish ordeal than most will want to know. The author takes great pains to ventilate about every unpleasantness she has endured (from male M.D.'s who "belittle" French by calling her a "tough lady," to "obtuse" book reviewers who fail to appreciate her writing, as well as the quotidian irritations of the world at large). Thankfully, she does express gratitude to her devoted children and her caring, high-profile female friends (Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, etc.). This Job's litany of horror is, however, a nightmare endured by a wealthy, much-honored literary giant, and a little acknowledgment of the many who suffer similar catastrophes without the status or financial wherewithal would have been nice. Although brief glimmers of growth and self-introspection appear every 40 or 50 pages, far more often the reader is presented with the author's calendar activity list, which resemble afterthoughts. Only one in five esophageal cancer victims survives, so it cannot be denied that French beat the odds. But such a talented writer should have known that a prolonged rant would not inspire others facing similar hardships.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Virago (September 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860495508
• ISBN-13: 978-1860495502
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,816,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read for the medical profession, May 12, 2000

By 

Rita Ledbetter - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Season in Hell: A Memoir (Paperback)

Although not familiar with Marilyn French I read the book because the subject of a woman fighting and surviving esophageal cancer intrigued me. Marilyn is not just any woman but an intelligent author and world traveler. She gives an excellent picture of the real world of cancer. Things like waiting forever to see the doctor, enduring the chemo aftereffects, and making decisons that can either bring life or death are treated with candor and sharp honesty. She made me understand her experience as I cried with her and cheered with her. The best part of the book was reading of the support and love she received from some of her famous friends. I did not agree with her belief system but I cherished the strength I felt in the ritual of just "being " with someone. As a women's health care nurse it made me a whole lot more sensitive to how I treat patients and families

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grim but Thought-Provoking, April 28, 2000

By 

A Lover of Good Books (Gill, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Season in Hell : A Memoir (Hardcover)

As I read this this grim memoir of a cure almost worse than the disease I kept comparing the author's wealthy and privileged situation to that of the rest of us women who don't have millions of dollars, marvelous famous friends, apartments convenient to top New York city Cancer Centers, and medical friends who can help us find the very best specialist.

As miserable as the author's sufferings are (and they ARE miserable) they pale in comparison to what a person would go through who had the same disease but could not afford around the clock private nursing, medical consultation after medical consultation, and the occasional retreat to a pleasant summer home the author describes.

This is not in any way a slam of the book, which I thought was a very accurate and revealing portrayal of what happens to anyone who suffers a serious health crisis that puts them at the mercy of unknown doctors and huge, impersonal hospitals. Instead I thought that this book would probably be a good reason to read this book before you sign your next HMO contract since it shows you just how dangerous it would be if you got a serious disease and were prevented from accessing top specialists and having the benefit of nursing and adequate rehabilitative services.

I have personally experienced the same kind of supercilious negative treatment from doctors that French details here, as well as suffering from dangerous misdiagnosis, having doctors ignore painful and crippling symptoms, and being left with permanent damage from misprescribed drugs, so I knew what she was talking about. I greatly respected her for telling a story in public that most people don't want to hear.

This is not your usual disease-of-the-week tearjerker nor is it a "how I saw God through cancer" memoir. It's a brutal, step by step documentation of how the quality of life erodes as a result of serious disease that makes all of us think about what we'd want to do if it were to happen to us--which it could and very well may.

The author isn't a saint and unlike other reviewers here I found her bleak honesty about her emotions refreshing. Life does this and it is hard as hell to deal with. I'm grateful that this woman, obviously a writer to her very (damaged) bones, made the heroic effort to write down for us this record of her journey towards physical dissolution--and as a writer myself, I'm particularly impressed that she was able to produce a work this polished while dealing with the physical limitations she describes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating memoir of surviving metastatic cancer, March 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Season in Hell : A Memoir (Hardcover)

This book is not for the faint-hearted, as it spares the reader no amount of pain and suffering. It is beautifully and painstakingly written, and the author is not shy about condemning those in the medical profesion whom she perceives to be pompous, bored or uncaring. She has the highest praise for the nurses who cared for her in the hospital and at home. Although ostensibly about surviving metastatic esophogeal cancer, the book is also a tribute to the author's family and friends who helped her live through the harrowing after-effects of cancer treatment. While reading the book, one begins to wonder if the treatment was worth the debilitating physical changes Ms. French deals with on a daily basis, despite being free of cancer. In the final chapter, she assures us that her sickness brought her to a better place than she'd ever been before, and we are left hoping that she can remain in that place.