The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Submitted by Nikki on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 01:01
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was truly unique and one that I couldn't put down. This was my first non-fiction as well as my first audio book. I have a full time job now with a nice long commute (sarcasm!). With kids, a house and a full time job, reading a book before bed was no longer an option (face literally in a book doesn't count). So I downloaded the book with the advice of a friend of mine who tried Audible.com through my web site. (Thank you Kathryn!) I listened to the book driving to and from work, and even during lunch when I got out for a walk. I found that I actually looked forward to traffic jams -- it gave me just a bit more time to listen.
I came upon this book while browsing around the Internet. It was a book that my book club read but I didn't get a chance to. I was apprehensive in buying it, mainly because it was a non-fiction. I assumed it would be dull and uneventful, and quite simply judged the book prematurely. However, it was fantastic. I couldn't put it down!
The story is about Henrietta Lacks but the world of medicine only knows her as HeLa. Henrietta was a formidable woman. She was a field worker with several kids and a cheating husband who found herself sick and never really ever getting any better. Finding herself bed ridden, doctors take samples of her cells without her or her families knowledge and begin to perform tests on her cells. It is with these tests that would prove to be a medical break through in cell research. Henrietta's cells are known as the first "immortal" human cells grown in culture. Her cells are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. In fact, modern doctors still use her cells today to perform research. Despite her famous cells, she the person is virtually unknown. Rebecca Skloot and the help of Henrietta's family, particularly Henrietta's oldest daughter, hope to change all of that.
The story is a truly fascinating one. It takes us on a journey through the history of medicine, the birth and continued growth of cell research, and the first business ever created from buying and selling human cells. More importantly, you learn about the unforgettable woman behind the cells.
I would describe this book as reading two stories in one. Rebecca Skloot is masterful in the way she intricately combines the two together. Just amazing! I found it hard to remember that every character you meet within the story is/was real.
You won't forget Henreitta Lacks. And I'm sure you will find yourself talking about her when you finish the book. Spread the word about her. She is due!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is educational and unimaginable in today's day and age. This book has all of the makings of a fictional story because you easily forget that it is in fact a non-fictional story. I would highly recommend reading this book.
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Book Jacket Summary/Synopsis - "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.
Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live, and struggle with the legacy of her cells.
Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.
Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
I had read the reviews of this book on Can't Put It Down's website and was intrigued. The site is right! I bought the book yesterday afternoon and couldn't put it down; I finished reading it in one setting.
The fact that it is non-fiction concerned me somewhat before I read the book. Now having read it the fact that it is a true story added to my enjoyment; it gave it a weight that a non-fiction doesn't carry.
I hightly recommend reading this book.
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