The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is Rebecca Skloot’s memoir of writing this book from when, as a teenager in biology class, she learned about amazing HeLa cells and how they came from the cancerous tumor in a woman named Henrietta Lacks. Skloot set off to learn everything she could about the cells (which have been instrumental to modern medical advances, including the developing of the polio vaccination), the cells’ donor, and the donor’s family. To tell this story, she weaves together the science of the cells, what she could learn about the person Henrietta Lacks, the bioethics surrounding the story, and her own struggle to get information from the family.

What I Liked: First, the book was a quick read that I was always happy to pick up. I didn’t know anything about HeLa cells, so that was interesting. And though I think she bungled the bioethics angle of this story, it’s good that she raised the questions “Is it illegal for doctors to take our cells without our knowledge?,” “don’t they have to tell you?,” and, “if they make a ton of money, don’t they have to share it with you?”No easy answers, but a conversation that needs to take place. Anyway . . .

The best part about the book was the short story of Henrietta Lacks’s shockingly sad life. The descendent of slaves, Her life from birth to dying at age 31 from an aggressive cervical cancer is as sad as any story I’ve ever read. Truly heartbreaking. Her story is a snapshot of the cultural and social life for African-Americans living in dire poverty and dysfunction in mid-twentieth century Virginia. If these two topics—the cells, and Henrietta Lack’s life—had been the book, I would agree with all the 5 star ratings. It would have made a fabulous feature-length magazine article, and that’s what it should have been.

What I Didn’t Like: The most interesting thing I learned at university was how books can be “slippery,” especially when the author isn’t aware of the undercurrents that he or she has submerged in the text. From the first paragraph, I detected a troubling overtone. The story she tries to tell here is worthwhile; my problem is in how she tells the story. First, there is way too much about Rebecca Skloot in this book, which is why I described it as her memoir, rather than the story of the woman named in the title. Henrietta Lacks dies in the first third of the book, and I was left wondering what the rest of the book would be about. It then bogs down with all the incidents of Skloot trying to get Lacks’s descendents to cooperate with her. In her portrayal of them she highlights the family’s dysfunction, lack of education, and luridness, and thus denies them dignity and respect. This may sound like a strange comment for those who know that Lacks’s sons were criminals—drug dealers and a murderer—but she should have mentioned it briefly as a matter of fact and not have sensationalized it--it's not the story. Worse is her focus on Deboarh, Lacks’s daughter who was too young to remember her mother. Skloot plays off Deborah’s manic irrationality to show herself as the level-headed voice of reason in this world she’s created of crazy black people. She presents all the African-Americans as colourful caricatures for the entertainment of the reader.

Skloot also tries to create tension in her book by attempting to make the family victims of the medical establishment. Yes, it’s sad and ironic that the HeLa cells have done so much to advance medical science while the family suffers without medical insurance. But one did not cause the other, and this does not turn the Lacks descendents into victims.

Finally, throughout the book, the Lacks family makes it clear that they do not want to be exploited. Yet, it appears to me that’s exactly what Skloot has done. I could say a lot more, but I will stop here.

I encourage you to read more at:
An Open Letter to Those Colleges and Universities that have Assigned Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as the Common Freshmen Reading for the Class of 2016

Rating: There are 640 five star reviews at LT, and this book made countless “best of the year” lists, so who am I to criticize it? I’ve read many glowing reviews, and I can see why people really like this book. Obviously, most readers do not have the problems with it that I do. But from the beginning, Skloot rubbed me the wrong way, and a few days after finishing it, my overall impressions are strongly negative. There was enough good stuff In it though that I will balance out the bad and give it three stars. ( )

Good story, poor writing, and a lot of unecessary authorial patting-oneself-on-the-back for "uncovering" the story, when it has actually been told before in BBC documentary among other things. ( )

Author Rebecca Skloot spent years researching this story, patiently gaining the trust of surviving family members, becoming friends with many of them and even becoming like family to at least one. She grew to care about the characters involved in her story, and wanted to bring some humanity to Henrietta and her descendants.

While the tissue samples were used for private laboratory experimentation without Henrietta's knowledge, you get the feeling that if she'd known about it, she would have agreed to it. She was by all appearances a kind, generous, giving woman, and probably would have readily agreed to donating her tissue if she thought it could help anyone. But the way they were taken is indicative of the times. They didn't need permission to obtain or retain tissue or organs from you during surgery or procedures, if obtaining such wasn't harmful to the patient. And a time when there were rumors of white doctors kidnapping blacks on the streets around John Hopkins and doing research and experiments on them. This was not a totally preposterous idea, as doctors had been testing on black citizens for decades without their knowledge. With the way that the Lacks family was misled and even lied to, who can blame them for their mistrust of the medical and scientific community?

Perhaps the most indelible character in the book, aside from Henrietta herself, is that of Henrietta's daughter Deborah, who is the toughest for Rebecca to win over, and yet their relationship grows to be the deepest and most significant. On a personal level, one of the things that I loved most about Deborah were her attempts to do what was best for her kids, and her desire to educate herself and to understand more of what happened to her mother's cells and what they meant to science and medicine.

I loved the names of the family members that made up this story and I noted at one point “Who needs fiction with colorful characters like these?”

My final word: This book brings to life a woman who died over 60 years ago, and tells Henrietta's story and that of her family with compassion and respect. The book is easy to follow, and isn't muddied with complicated scientific principles or language. The author is a layman, and she writes this story as a layman. This book is great for a controversial book club read, as there are so many ethical questions in regards to what the doctors did and how the scientific community has benefited from Henrietta's cells, while her family can't even get medical care. ( )

5Q 3P

A really clear, well-written book that not only showcases the incredible medical science in the story of Henrietta Lacks, but also a personal history of Henrietta and her family. Fascinating material dealt with in a compassionate and human way.

Henrietta Lacks cells were the first to be propagated outside the human body. Used in research and to develop new medications they are sold all over the world. But for many years, her family, poor and uneducated, had no idea what was going on. ( )