What do you think?
Rate this book
The Red Devil : A Memoir About Beating The Odds
When Katherine Russell Rich was 32, a newly divorced magazine editor living in New York City, her 10-year ordeal with cancer began. Soon she was bald, scrambled, and living in two worlds the world of the ill, of treatments, exhaustion, and doctors focused on avoiding malpractice suits; and the "normal" world, where dating, career, vacations, and 401(k) plans still mattered. Dazzling in its writing, The Red Devil is alternately wise and wise-cracking -- it is the story of a woman who has been brought to her knees several times, only to get up and learn to dance.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
7 people are currently reading
163 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Russell Rich
5 books7 followersKatherine Russell Rich is an American autobiographical writer from New York City. Her first book, The Red Devil: To Hell with Cancer, and Back, told of a clash of cultures occurring when the author's breast cancer treatment caused her to lose her hair just when both romantic and professional difficulties came to a head.
Her latest book, Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language, details a year she spent in India on assignment for The New York Times. Having been sent there to interview the Dalai Lama's doctor, her assignment turned into a journey of linguistic awakening and of self-discovery. It was nominated for the 2011 Dolman Travel Book Award.
Rich's articles have been featured in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Oregonian, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue and Salon. She has received several grants and fellowships, including ones from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York Public Library’s Center for Scholars and Writers, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2011). (from Wikipedia)
Her latest book, Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language, details a year she spent in India on assignment for The New York Times. Having been sent there to interview the Dalai Lama's doctor, her assignment turned into a journey of linguistic awakening and of self-discovery. It was nominated for the 2011 Dolman Travel Book Award.
Rich's articles have been featured in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Oregonian, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue and Salon. She has received several grants and fellowships, including ones from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York Public Library’s Center for Scholars and Writers, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2011). (from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 18, 2012
I picked up this book again recently, after hearing about the author’s death almost 25 years after she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, and surprised myself by reading straight through it even though her experiences and the intelligent, almost poetic, but also trenchantly snarky way she wrote about them have stuck with me, sometimes word for word, amazingly well years after my initial encounter.
Karen Russell Rich was only 32 when she finally became determined enough to make her doctors take the growing lump in her breast seriously. This was 1988 and breast cancer was still largely in the closet. It was before the era of ubiquitous pink ribbons, “save the ta-tas” buttons, and awareness months. She was too young to know anyone else who had the disease so had to find her way largely on her own. Her marriage fell apart shortly before her diagnosis and she was in the midst of remaking her life in the heedless way we do after major emotional setbacks, with lots of random dating and a new job. Cancer was obviously not in the game plan, and yet somehow it was there, and life went on, with sometimes grueling hardships of course, but still surprisingly well.
This is not a depressing book. It’s written with piercing, insightful humor and Karen was able to lead a life that was full based on any standard, enough so that she wrote a second book about her adventures living in India and learning Hindi. I’ve also had cancer, and wanting to get on with living and not have the illness define my existence I usually avoid disease memoirs, but I’ve made an exception to that for this book twice.
Karen Russell Rich was only 32 when she finally became determined enough to make her doctors take the growing lump in her breast seriously. This was 1988 and breast cancer was still largely in the closet. It was before the era of ubiquitous pink ribbons, “save the ta-tas” buttons, and awareness months. She was too young to know anyone else who had the disease so had to find her way largely on her own. Her marriage fell apart shortly before her diagnosis and she was in the midst of remaking her life in the heedless way we do after major emotional setbacks, with lots of random dating and a new job. Cancer was obviously not in the game plan, and yet somehow it was there, and life went on, with sometimes grueling hardships of course, but still surprisingly well.
This is not a depressing book. It’s written with piercing, insightful humor and Karen was able to lead a life that was full based on any standard, enough so that she wrote a second book about her adventures living in India and learning Hindi. I’ve also had cancer, and wanting to get on with living and not have the illness define my existence I usually avoid disease memoirs, but I’ve made an exception to that for this book twice.
March 8, 2015
A few months ago, right smack in the middle of my year long journey of chemo treatments, I read "The Emperor of All Maladies". After finishing the book, I realized how I came away more worried by the fact that I had to battle stage 4 metastatic colon cancer than before reading the book. Depressing. I wasn't sure I wanted to read anymore books on cancer until my health stabilized. So when discovering this book at a resale shop a whole 13 months into chemo treatment, I almost passed it up. Thankfully I didn't. Like the author, I identified with many of the complexities that come with a cancer diagnosis: the treatments side effects, the various reactions of people one knew or didn't know, etc. etc. But what I most enjoyed about this book is how articulate and raw this book is written. The metaphors are right on point in describing much of the mental processes when diagnosed, esp. at an age when one is so focused on career, dating, and "living it up". I had, from time to time, thumbed through other cancer books that rammed inspiration down my throat. Thankfully, this is not that, but somehow I walk away feeling not inspired, but more prepared, mentally, which puts me at ease...prepared knowing that whatever the outcome, I breathe on knowing I am burning through this moment with all my faculties, burning up the red devil that can never take my love for life away.
February 9, 2012
One of the other Goodreads comments on this book is "Don't read this if you have just been diagnosed with cancer because it will freak you out." Man, I can second that. I can add an addendum of advice to that: "It might not be wise to read this book if you're a recent cancer survivor." Typically, I'm not the type to give myself kudos, but I think I was either brave and/or dumb to read this book. That said, this is--by far--my favorite cancer memoir. (I have a hard time considering Grealy's "Autobiography of a Face" a straight-up cancer memoir since the book focuses so much on her disfigured face instead.) Though I'm sure we're very different, the more I read this book, the more and more I identified in character and spirit with the author. It must have taken a shit-ton of guts to write this book. That alone is deeply admirable--and it happens to be really well written.
Though CancerLand is just one facet of this diverse world, I think anyone, even those that are "freaking normal," can learn from this book.
Though CancerLand is just one facet of this diverse world, I think anyone, even those that are "freaking normal," can learn from this book.
March 30, 2018
Not sure I needed to read this book, but it was like a train wreck I could not look away. Her horrible experience with cancer doctors and drugs is sad and outrageous. It is quite dated in the actual medicine, but it’s astounding to think how many people have had her experience.
November 15, 2008
The Red Devil is a bold, wickedly funny tale of illness, joy and the improbable triump of love in the midst of despair.
When Katherine Russell Rich was thirty-two, a newly divorced, high-powered magazine editor living a glamorous live 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.
Katherine Russell Rich has written an edgy, smart, wicked memoir, and anyone who has ever taken life for granted, even for a minute, ought to read this.
When Katherine Russell Rich was thirty-two, a newly divorced, high-powered magazine editor living a glamorous live 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.
Katherine Russell Rich has written an edgy, smart, wicked memoir, and anyone who has ever taken life for granted, even for a minute, ought to read this.
November 2, 2010
Like the Holocaust, breast cancer provides a seemingly endless source of reading material. And just when you think you don't want to read one more book on the subject, up pops another one worth reading. What I found so interesting about this book is that the author had breast cancer in 1988 at the age of 32, and she is still alive today, and she still has recurrences today. So this is not the typical "I had breast cancer but I defeated it" nor "I had breast cancer and it defeated me", but rather, like life, filled with ambiguity and mystery.
I also liked the author's tone a lot because she seemed completely realistic. She wasn't glib,nor boastful, nor philosophical and meditative. She was/is a real person who had to deal with a life threatening illness while trying to keep her job, find an apartment, get into and out of romantic relationships. She is at times whiny and self-pitying, at times funny, and at times just realistically descriptive about the processes she went through in learning to cope with this disease. And that is what makes her a real person, not a hero or a martyr. And what I really liked is that she doesn't ever say that it's a good thing she had cancer because it . . . . .( brought her closer to God, brought her a deeper understanding of herself, etc., etc., etc. )
Finally, this is a book you could recommend to a friend who has cancer or read yourself if you have cancer because it really reinforces the truth that every single case is different, and her story is inspirational on that level. The caption on the edition I read was subtitled "To Hell with Cancer---and Back", which I think is more appropriate than the above "Memoir about Beating the Odds". I don't see her so much as a warrior, but rather a negotiator.
I also liked the author's tone a lot because she seemed completely realistic. She wasn't glib,nor boastful, nor philosophical and meditative. She was/is a real person who had to deal with a life threatening illness while trying to keep her job, find an apartment, get into and out of romantic relationships. She is at times whiny and self-pitying, at times funny, and at times just realistically descriptive about the processes she went through in learning to cope with this disease. And that is what makes her a real person, not a hero or a martyr. And what I really liked is that she doesn't ever say that it's a good thing she had cancer because it . . . . .( brought her closer to God, brought her a deeper understanding of herself, etc., etc., etc. )
Finally, this is a book you could recommend to a friend who has cancer or read yourself if you have cancer because it really reinforces the truth that every single case is different, and her story is inspirational on that level. The caption on the edition I read was subtitled "To Hell with Cancer---and Back", which I think is more appropriate than the above "Memoir about Beating the Odds". I don't see her so much as a warrior, but rather a negotiator.
July 14, 2012
Facinating and well written book about cancer and surviving cancer. The author came to my attention because she is an extreamly long time survivor of breast cancer, without a real remission. And with her will to live she continues to explore - living in India recently and learning Hindi. I also read her book Dreaming in Hindi.
It is a terrible thing that this book is out of print since I am sure there are moments when it must be read. I'm not sure if those moments have to do with a friend or loved one's diagnosis, or your own, but it should be widely available.
It is a terrible thing that this book is out of print since I am sure there are moments when it must be read. I'm not sure if those moments have to do with a friend or loved one's diagnosis, or your own, but it should be widely available.
January 15, 2009
An excellent book on confronting cancer in a way that is completely without pity or sentiment. A great read.
December 22, 2018
Such a shame that Katherine Russell Rich eventually died from the cancer that she describes in this book. But, and this is a big but, she survived and lived with cancer for 24 years. Diagnosed initially in 1988, she died in 2012 aged 56. There's a lot of women now who would appreciate surviving for so long. Metastatic breast cancer is a terrible killer.
A raw account of medical procedures, differing competences and existential drama. It is well written and the metaphors used are particularly able to convey her take on her situation.
"Night after night, the neurons raced one pathway, carving it deeper in my brain. Obsession is the same thought repeated over and over till it blocks off reason, till it leeches sanity. And cancer is a single cell that reproduces uncontrollably till it grows so large it starves the tissue around it and ultimately, destroys its host. Both are repetitive, aberrant, both thrive in airless environments. One kills the body, the other, the spirit."
A raw account of medical procedures, differing competences and existential drama. It is well written and the metaphors used are particularly able to convey her take on her situation.
"Night after night, the neurons raced one pathway, carving it deeper in my brain. Obsession is the same thought repeated over and over till it blocks off reason, till it leeches sanity. And cancer is a single cell that reproduces uncontrollably till it grows so large it starves the tissue around it and ultimately, destroys its host. Both are repetitive, aberrant, both thrive in airless environments. One kills the body, the other, the spirit."
Read
February 7, 2022A very emotional read, filled with brutal honesty. Although some time has passed and new advances available, it stung at how much has not changed. It hurt to read this and I cried but I am glad to have heard her story.
May 15, 2019
I 'met' Katherine Russel Rich through her spectacular book 'Dreaming in Hindi' which was written whilst she was in remission from the cancer she describes in 'The Red Devil'. I loved her writing so much that I tracked down this book which is not one that's easy to find in the UK. I've since tracked down more copies to share with friends who I thought would benefit from reading of how somebody beat the odds.
It's not a spoiler to say that KRR didn't make it in the long run - plenty of other reviewers have already mentioned that - but surviving 25 years, living a fantastic life, and confounding all the predictions of her doctors means she'll always be a 'winner' in my eyes. Oh, and if you like this book, DO PLEASE track down Dreaming in Hindi. My copy is well due for a re-read.
“I found the lump twenty minutes before breakfast, three weeks after my marriage broke up,” Katherine Russell Rich’s book opens with a slap in the face. And it continues at that pace, slap after slap as the author unfolds her journey through an Inferno that she calls Cancerland. We meet doctors who hover on the brink of malpractice suits and who are unwilling to believe that any woman in her thirties could possibly have breast cancer. And there are co workers who avoid anyone who reminds them that they may one day die. Relatives cannot mention the ‘c’ word. Friends of her own age cannot deal with the stark reality of cancer.
Despite the fact that Russell Rich documents the lonely no man’s land of a cancer sufferer vividly, the book is not morbid or dripping with self pity. Instead it’s often tongue in cheek. |She looks unflinchingly at the different kind of emotions that contact with a cancer sufferer provokes. “‘People don’t want to hear about it,'” Rich’s scandalous great-aunt who also survived cancer tells her and she soon realises that it's absolutely true.
Her editor refused her assignments and gradually eased her out of her magazine job. While the cancer taint affected any doctor that she met including her ophthalmologist who looked at her conjunctivitis and told her kindly that she did not have cancer of the eye.
The title of the book comes from the nickname given to her chemotherapy medicine Adriamycin and she explores how cancer makes people “behave like more concentrated versions of themselves. For better. For worse,” as she grapples to find meaning in her disease even as she loses her hair or vomits for eight hours with her ex-husband by her side.
One lesson that she learnt was that it was important to stay connected to the everyday world and not lose perspective. “Cancer,” she writes, “is infantile in its demands. By demanding constant vigilance, it makes you self-absorbed.” And the result of self absorption is loneliness. “Sick of being indebted to tragedy for definition, of regarding it as predictive,” she decides to look on the positive side and predict a happy outcome against all odds. Told that she had two or three years to live, all she wanted was her ordinary life back with no grand last wishes. And she struggles desperately to achieve that.
She even manages to fall in love again, but the boyfriend walks out because her cancer medicines are making her fat, though he promises he’ll be on call if there is an emergency. Russell Rich points out, “But he dumped me in an emergency.”
Russell Rich’s style has no flourishes – it is simple, hard-hitting and gets its message across very readably. In the end, the book is a very brave account of dealing with cancer and managing to survive against all odds. For many years after her treatment, shee lived in remission, beset by the normal problems of life.
The book won a New York Foundation for the Arts Award and that is hardly surprising given its importance as a memoir.
Seldom has a writer made me feel more sure that I wished I had known them in person. One completely random morning I saw my copy on the shelf and thought "I wonder how Katherine RR is doing now?". I googled her and learned she'd died just a few weeks earlier. I'm not ashamed to say I cried in the car on the way to work for a life well lived and for somebody I knew I'd never get to speak to or get to know in the flesh.
It's not a spoiler to say that KRR didn't make it in the long run - plenty of other reviewers have already mentioned that - but surviving 25 years, living a fantastic life, and confounding all the predictions of her doctors means she'll always be a 'winner' in my eyes. Oh, and if you like this book, DO PLEASE track down Dreaming in Hindi. My copy is well due for a re-read.
“I found the lump twenty minutes before breakfast, three weeks after my marriage broke up,” Katherine Russell Rich’s book opens with a slap in the face. And it continues at that pace, slap after slap as the author unfolds her journey through an Inferno that she calls Cancerland. We meet doctors who hover on the brink of malpractice suits and who are unwilling to believe that any woman in her thirties could possibly have breast cancer. And there are co workers who avoid anyone who reminds them that they may one day die. Relatives cannot mention the ‘c’ word. Friends of her own age cannot deal with the stark reality of cancer.
Despite the fact that Russell Rich documents the lonely no man’s land of a cancer sufferer vividly, the book is not morbid or dripping with self pity. Instead it’s often tongue in cheek. |She looks unflinchingly at the different kind of emotions that contact with a cancer sufferer provokes. “‘People don’t want to hear about it,'” Rich’s scandalous great-aunt who also survived cancer tells her and she soon realises that it's absolutely true.
Her editor refused her assignments and gradually eased her out of her magazine job. While the cancer taint affected any doctor that she met including her ophthalmologist who looked at her conjunctivitis and told her kindly that she did not have cancer of the eye.
The title of the book comes from the nickname given to her chemotherapy medicine Adriamycin and she explores how cancer makes people “behave like more concentrated versions of themselves. For better. For worse,” as she grapples to find meaning in her disease even as she loses her hair or vomits for eight hours with her ex-husband by her side.
One lesson that she learnt was that it was important to stay connected to the everyday world and not lose perspective. “Cancer,” she writes, “is infantile in its demands. By demanding constant vigilance, it makes you self-absorbed.” And the result of self absorption is loneliness. “Sick of being indebted to tragedy for definition, of regarding it as predictive,” she decides to look on the positive side and predict a happy outcome against all odds. Told that she had two or three years to live, all she wanted was her ordinary life back with no grand last wishes. And she struggles desperately to achieve that.
She even manages to fall in love again, but the boyfriend walks out because her cancer medicines are making her fat, though he promises he’ll be on call if there is an emergency. Russell Rich points out, “But he dumped me in an emergency.”
Russell Rich’s style has no flourishes – it is simple, hard-hitting and gets its message across very readably. In the end, the book is a very brave account of dealing with cancer and managing to survive against all odds. For many years after her treatment, shee lived in remission, beset by the normal problems of life.
The book won a New York Foundation for the Arts Award and that is hardly surprising given its importance as a memoir.
Seldom has a writer made me feel more sure that I wished I had known them in person. One completely random morning I saw my copy on the shelf and thought "I wonder how Katherine RR is doing now?". I googled her and learned she'd died just a few weeks earlier. I'm not ashamed to say I cried in the car on the way to work for a life well lived and for somebody I knew I'd never get to speak to or get to know in the flesh.
June 10, 2011
This is well-written, funny, sad and informative all at the same time. My roommate and friend is an Ovarian Cancer survivor and someone brought this book over to our house, and one day when I was home sick from work I read the entire thing. Recommended especially for cancer patients, survivors, and their friends and family, but I believe anyone would benefit from Russell Rich's extraordinary insight. A great read.
August 23, 2016
This honest description of the author's trip to hell and back gave me more insight into what my daughter must have experienced as she battled colon cancer and lost. I didn't want to keep reading at times, but the book is so well written that I had to finish it. If I were battling the disease, however, i think this book would scare the fight out of me.
December 26, 2008
Extremely candid book about struggling with breast cancer. The author is a magazine editor and she struggled with pain, the medical system, insurance and everything else that goes with cancer for over 10 years. This book is medically out of date, but the story is haunting.
March 21, 2009
I could not put this book down. what a riveting tale
I heard Russel-Rich on a Moth podcast (unrelated to her illness) and decided to give this book a try... it's an amazing tale of stage four cancer, told in pretty graphic detail and without self pity.
I heard Russel-Rich on a Moth podcast (unrelated to her illness) and decided to give this book a try... it's an amazing tale of stage four cancer, told in pretty graphic detail and without self pity.
August 18, 2007
Don't read this if you have just been diagnosed with cancer because it will freak you out.
October 1, 2009
Great book. Well told story of living through a horrific time and a remarkable woman.
September 2, 2010
Stunning book about dealing with breast cancer--fierce wit and furious prose, Rich fights the illness in the same way she writes: deftly and in powerful command.
April 8, 2011
To hell with cancer and back. Katherine Russell Rich is a journalist with breast cancer. This helped me understand the "feelings" of my friend with cancer. Very good book.
April 7, 2012
A harrowing and beautifully written story.
October 12, 2012
A brave and beautiful writer who elucidates the challenges of living with stage four cancer with honesty and humour.
September 17, 2012
inspiring
January 1, 2013
A journalist with breast cancer chronicles her 10-year ordeal with breast and then bone cancer. This brave, gutsy woman died 25 years after being diagnosed.
March 10, 2016
A straightforward book showing a great deal of courage.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews