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The red devil : to hell with cancer-- and back

by Rich, Katherine Russell.

Format: Print Book 1999
Availability: Available at 2 Libraries 2 of 2 copies

Available (2)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Main Library Second Floor - Non-fiction RC280.B8 R53 1999
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  Second Floor - Non-fiction
 
Call Number  RC280.B8 R53 1999
 
 
Shaler North Hills Library Non-Fiction 362.19699 R
Location  Shaler North Hills Library
 
Collection  Non-Fiction
 
Call Number  362.19699 R
 
 

Summary
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.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Rich's account of her bout with breast cancer is a roller coaster of emotions: fear, panic, depression, hysteria, elation. It is funny, painful, touching, and finally triumphant. From the time she discovers a lump in her breast (shortly after her divorce), through a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and a harrowing bone-marrow transplant, Rich searches for peace in a life initially devastated by cancer. She copes with the stress of a faltering writing career, cold and indifferent doctors, frightened friends and colleagues, and misconceptions about cancer. She mocks the image of the "noble" cancer sufferer and humorously observes the prevalence of "break-up cancer," women succumbing after ending stressful relationships. Rich's account is also profoundly informative on cancer diagnosis and treatment. When the medical establishment fails to address cancer beyond the statistics, Rich tries meditation, vegetarianism, and alternative medicines. She also discovers the odd blessing the cancer becomes as it forces her to rebuild her life. --Vanessa Bush"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Rich, Katherine Russell -- Health.
Breast -- Cancer -- Patients -- United States -- Biography.
Publisher New York :Crown,1999
Edition 1st ed.
Language English
Description 232 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN 0609603213 (hardcover)
Other Classic View