The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (edition 2010)

One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. Highly recommended. ( )

This book is about the story of a young African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1950s Henrietta died from cervical cancer in a ward of John Hopkin's Hospital. Without her permission, doctors took a biopsy of her cancerous cells and cultured them in a lab. Henrietta's cells became famous in the world of research and medicine. They were the first cells to reproduce in a lab setting at an extremely high rate. This characteristic of Henrietta's cells made them very desirable for studying cancer and diseases and they were sent to research labs all over the globe. Her cells, nicknamed HeLa, have revolutionized the world of research practices, patient consent, patent law and everything in between. Rebecca Skloot uncovers the true identity of Henrietta Lacks, shedding light on the Lacks family and the controversy surrounding HeLa cells. The author does an excellent job of explaining the science behind the story without the confusion and dryness. It's a quick read and discusses the intersectionality of race, class, and science. I highly recommend this book to anyone, science-oriented or not! ( )

Excellent book. Every time I picked the book up to read, I had to force myself to eventually put it down to go to work or sleep. Skloot lays out the facts of Henrietta Lacks' life and death. She takes the bad with the good. She never seems to pick a side; but makes it clear that an injustice has been done to the Lacks family that will never be put right. Skloot is just as much a part of this book as the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. ( )

This book is the true story of one of the greatest scientific discoveries.
Cells were taken from a tumor in the body of a woman named Henrietta Lacks (HeLa). Now, several decades later, her cells have been used to discover treatments for numerous diseases and made the researchers and scientists working with them millions of dollars. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family lives in poverty. They were never told about the cells until many years later.
This book addresses the ethical problems associated with using tissue for research and informed consent. It also discusses potential racial inequalities due to the fact that the Lacks family is African American. Additionally, religion is touched upon.
Although this book is nonfiction, it is told from the perspective of the author. It is the story of her journey finding the information presented in this book. I couldn't put it down.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks really makes you think about the parts of your own life involved with medicine and science.
It is possible that those without a science background could have a difficult time understanding parts of the novel. However, like Deborah, a good dictionary should help you through. I thought this book was outstanding. I would read it again in a heartbeat. :) ( )

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. ( )