Synopses & Reviews
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 simultaneously: 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.
Synopsis
Hailed by critics nationwide and winner of two 1999 Books for a Better Life Awards, this book shares the author's bold tale of illness, joy, mortality, and the improbable triumph of love in the midst of despair.
About the Author
Katherine Russell Rich lives in New York City.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Reading Group Guide
The Red Devil transcends easy definitions. The memoir of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of thirty-two, it recounts her journey into a medical nightmare in harrowing detail, yet never descends into self-pity. It invokes, in both poetry and invective, the isolation and fear she experiences, yet presents a world in which compassion, love, and brazen courage rout the forces of self-interest, arrogance, and indifference. It deals with human tragedy, yet sings with triumphant humor. This guide will enhance your reading group's discussion of this remarkable work, hailed by
Entertainment Weekly as "spirited--stirring--as humorous as it is honest."
1. Rich begins her book by writing, "I found the lump twenty minutes before breakfast, three weeks after my marriage broke up." How does this brief sentence set the tone and establish the themes of the rest of the memoir? What does it tell you about Rich's approach to life?
2. In describing her family's medical history and her own lifestyle, Rich cites recent scientific studies that show she was at high risk for developing cancer [p.10-11]. If this information had been available to her earlier, do you think she would have modified her behavior? For example, would she have left her marriage sooner or tempered her professional ambitions? Why or why not?
3. Why does Rich so readily accept her doctor's dismissal of her fears [p. 17]? Is Rich too willing to let others take responsibility for her health or is her behavior understandable in light of her age and the relationship between doctors and patients in our society in general?
4. How does Rich's family background--including her father's beliefs as a Christian Scientist--influence her initial approach to her illness? What does she mean when she writes "I was eager to know more about cancer. I just didn't want to know one thing--that I had it" [p.50]. At what point does her determined stoicism break down?
5. Rich finds comfort in listening to music and in reading. To what extent do these activities serve as escapes from reality? What emotional or intellectual satisfactions does each provide within the context of her illness?
6. Are Rich's doctors unusual in their lack of compassion? What justifications, if any, are there for the way Walter Victor, the breast surgeon, and William Bonner and Susan Kruze, the two oncologists, handle Rich's situation? How does Chiara Antonelli differ from the others? What qualities does she share with them?
7. Rich writes, "In figuring out how the medical system works, I was learning that one of the most important things was to distrust it" [p. 39]. How do the events in the book support this claim? Are there specific incidents that contradict it?
8. "Loneliness is one of cancer's sly, nasty tricks," [p.80] Rich writes. Why doesn't the attention of her friends, her ex-husband, Diego, and Ben, first her friend and then her lover, ease her feelings of isolation? Does this have to do with Rich's own personality or is it a universal emotion among people suffering from life-threatening illnesses? Which friends and acquaintances are particularly helpful to her and why? Are the bonds she forms with Claire, Lisa, and other cancer patients more meaningful than her relationships with her old friends?
9. Are Rich's concerns about her social life and her physical appearance (for example, her weight gain and her loss of hair) manifestations of vanity? In what ways are they symbols of the emotional and psychological changes Rich is experiencing?
10. Do you think that the friendship between Rich and Ben would have evolved into a love affair under normal circumstances? What aspects of their personalities might explain the transformation of their feelings during one of the worst periods in Rich's medical treatment? Why does the relationship fall apart when Rich temporarily regains her health?
11. Why does Rich call the friendship she and Diego come to share one of the best paradoxes of her cancer [p.77]? What other paradoxes does she confront in the course of her illness and how do they influence both her attitudes and her actions?
12. Rich writes, "In Cancerland--people are forced to live in two times zones at once. We exist on cancer's time and real-world time simultaneously" [p.37]. What devices does she employ--in both the flow of the narrative and in her tone of voice--to bring this duality to life? How do her dreams, her memories of Lynn, Hope's suicide, and her reflections on her marriage sharpen the sense that she is existing in two different time zones?
13. Rich mocks the New Age image of "plucky cancer survivors" described in books like Bernie Siegel's Love, Medicine & Miracles [p. 52]. Is Rich overly critical of Siegel and other "cancer gurus" or do her own insights and experiences confirm her skepticism? Is it possible for people who have not undergone the terrors of cancer to understand its profound impact?
14. There are many graphic descriptions of Rich's medical treatments in The Red Devil. What do they add to the narrative? Are they merely "horror stories" or do they serve another function?
15. Has increased awareness of breast cancer eliminated the possibility that other women will undergo experiences similar to Rich's?
16. In a recent interview in People magazine, Rich said, "This isn't a cancer book. This is a war novel for women." Do you think this is an apt description? If so, what enemies, beyond the cancer itself, did Rich have to vanquish? Memoirs about serious illness are often described as "inspiring" and "uplifting." Do these terms apply to The Red Devil? If you were writing a review of the book, what adjectives would you use?