The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Oct 07, 2011 Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, book-club, re-reads

Nearly everyone on my Goodreads friends list had read and given a positive review to this book before my book club selected it, so I knew it was going to be interesting, but I didn't expect it to be as engaging as it turned out to be. While on the surface this is a book about science and medical ethics, it turns out to be even more a book about a family and their struggles to reconcile the good things their mother's cells have done for science with the fact that neither she nor they knew her cel Nearly everyone on my Goodreads friends list had read and given a positive review to this book before my book club selected it, so I knew it was going to be interesting, but I didn't expect it to be as engaging as it turned out to be. While on the surface this is a book about science and medical ethics, it turns out to be even more a book about a family and their struggles to reconcile the good things their mother's cells have done for science with the fact that neither she nor they knew her cells were being taken, and that no profits from the use of her cells have ever come back to the family.

Henrietta Lacks lived in poverty in rural Virginia and died of cervical cancer at the age of 31. She was treated at Johns Hopkins University during an era when best practices for medical ethics had not been codified, and so a tissue culture scientist at Hopkins didn't think twice about taking a cell sample from a black woman who was not paying for her hospital stay - he was engrossed in a project to try to create the first immortal line of cells and was taking samples from everyone he came in contact with. He had no way of knowing that the cancer growing on her cervix would be the the first cells to thrive in a laboratory - but thrive they did. When her cells kept growing, the scientist, George Gey, started sharing them with every scientist who asked, and amazingly, the cells survived shipment through the mail and long trips in people's pockets and continued to grow in other laboratories. Suddenly, HeLa cells were everywhere, even though other cell lines continued to die out after a few generations.

Henrietta passed away, yet for years - continuing even to the present day - scientists conducted thousands of tests on HeLa cells to understand how cells survive in outer space, in atomic bombs, and when subjected to any number of medical conditions. Her cells led to a multitude of scientific discoveries, and because of the lax regulations when her cells were first taken, it didn't take long for journalists to uncover Henrietta's identity and to start contacting her family - which is how they first learned that Henrietta's cells had outlived her. Her family, living in poverty, was understandably divided between pride at the discoveries that had come from HeLa cells and anger that scientists and corporations were profiting off of their genetic material.

The scientific side of the story is interesting in itself, but Skloot's book succeeds primarily because she lets us get to know Henrietta's children and other family members. Over time, Skloot formed a friendship with Henrietta's daughter Deborah, and Deborah gradually allowed Skloot access to other family members, most of whom were guarded after repeated bad experiences with members of the press. At the heart of this book is the story of Deborah and her relatives, who lived in poverty and were primarily uneducated, yet who wanted desperately to learn more about their mother's legacy and to reach some kind of closure in the whole situation.

I was surprised by how quickly I was drawn into this book, and by how quickly I devoured it. If you're unfamiliar with HeLa cells, you'll learn a lot by reading this book, but even if you know the science, there's a lot to think about just reading about the Lacks family and their struggles to understand what had happened to their mother's cells. Highly recommended.

Note: I wrote this review after my original reading of the book, October 7-14, 2011. I re-read the book in July 2013. I think I'm a little stingier with five-star reviews now than I was on my first read and might have only given it four this time around, but I'll leave everything as it stands. This is a very engaging and informative read and still something I highly recommend. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 29, 2011 ellen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, reviewed, nonfiction, topic-popular-history

I liked the book, although I think that a deeper exploration of consent and medical research would have been interesting. I would have liked to read more about the history of nonconsensual medical research and experimentation, particularly as it relates to race. Skloot did an effective job of weaving together the narrative about Henrietta, Henrietta's descendants, and her own journey researching and writing this book. She also included a lot of the scientific information necessary to grasp what ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2011 Leslie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: wonder, grownups

Skloot's combination of science, ethics, race and personal narrative make this an extremely compelling read. Even though it slowed down for me in the middle, I don't think the book could have been edited anymore and all the information included was important. As a librarian, this book amazed me and I would have loved to have been a research assistant for Ms. Skloot! The back material: notes, timelines, cast of characters, etc. make this book a librarian's dream. As an educator, this book has don ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 29, 2010 Arianna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Beautiful, endearing narrative. You will love the Lacks family, especially Deborah.

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 10, 2010 Rae rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: math-and-sciences

I enjoyed this book immensely. I liked the scientific and medical information about cell research and particularly the HeLa line of cells. But, I also loved the depictions of Henrietta's family members and the interactions between them and the author. Skloot shows clearly the impact that poverty and a lack of education had on the Lacks family for several generations. This book is equally a medical AND social history. Very interesting read. ...more

Like · see review

Jan 08, 2011 Stephanie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, favorites

This was fantastic. The author is telling two decades-long stories here: the personal story of Henrietta Lacks and her family (from the 1920s to the 2000s) and the scientific story of the "immortal" cells of Henrietta Lacks and their effeect on medical research and medical ethics. Both stories are told clearly and well.

It was a bit off, somehow, to have these stories of a black family told (with their speech patterns and accents) by a highly-educated white woman. I wonder if the family has read ...more

Like · see review

Jun 02, 2011 LT rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Loved this book. There are so many questions regarding science, research and what should be available and at what cost (emotionally and physically). Skloot breaks down scientific jargon into understandable explainations and provided varying sides to the issue. Very intersting stuff.

Like · see review