At the age of 32, Katherine Russell Rich was a newly divorced
magazine editor living in the Big Apple. However, her life changed
dramatically over the course of the next 10 years as she struggled
with breast cancer. THE RED DEVIL is the memoir she has chosen to
write about those years in which her indefatigable spirit came up
against many an obstacle and yet still seemed to persevere.

The interesting thing about this book is, aside from her
wonderfully conversational tone and gentle way of letting you into
the most painful details of her life without making you feel sorry
for her, that she was straddling two very different worlds during
her treatment. As a young woman interested in picking up the pieces
of her romantic life after a disastrous relationship, she was
concerned with her career, with dating, with retirement accounts
and taxes, and all the usual career girl objectives. On the other
hand, she found herself adrift in a world of hospitals and doctors,
malpractice concerns, and chemotherapy, not the place for a hip
young editor with her whole life ahead of her.

With a family that had a long history of cancer, Rich found herself
facing difficult and monumental tasks of both treatment and
reoccurrence of the cancer. She discusses with great frankness the
way that having cancer made her "crazy" and the surrealistic way
she lived her life in the public eye while shading her private hell
from those around her. Trying to live a "normal" life, she runs
into generations of trouble, not wanting to give in to the disease
but being forced to for her life's sake.

THE RED DEVIL is a really great book. Like Mary Karr's memoirs,
Rich turns the smallest detail into an epic of an adventuresome
spirit and the depths of despair at the same time. It is a wondrous
achievement in both writing and personal triumph. A highly
recommended read.