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A review by mitskacir
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2.0
I learned a lot from this book, so perhaps I should round up for that, but I can't say I enjoyed it. In fact, this book was quite uncomfortable to read. I wish I had someone to talk to about it, because I'm not sure if my discomfort is something about me or something about the book. Mainly, I was uncomfortable with how in depth this book went into describing Henrietta's descendants - I often felt like we, as readers, were given too much information in a way that diminished the dignity of the Lacks. On the one hand, Skloot clearly showed the family has a lot of challenges - they live in poverty, have a variety of physical and mental health issues, have experienced domestic and sexual abuse, don't have access to education, many of them have committed crimes and been incarcerated, etc. - and this helped the reader understand their justifiable paranoia, mistrust, and anger toward medical, scientific, and governmental institutions. However, I felt like this could have been done without some of the detailed descriptions of their mental breakdowns, manic episodes, curse-laden tirades, their own medical conditions, etc. I felt uncomfortable reading about these very personal parts of their lives, and could not image myself wanting these scenes depicted in a book was it about me.
I did learn a lot about HeLa cells and I think the book is important in that it humanizes Henrietta Lacks herself and gives context to the dubious scientific and medical practices that were acceptable and commonplace at the time. I was fascinated to learn more about the medical breakthroughs that have been achieved with HeLa cells, and wish these parts were more descriptive and scientific (a criticism I often have of pop-sci pieces). But most of the book actually was not about HeLa cells or Henrietta, but rather about her descendants. If this had been executed differently, I think this is a good inclusion, but as it stands it left a bad taste in my mouth.
For comparison, I wish this book was more like [b:The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures|12609|The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures|Anne Fadiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432610033l/12609._SY75_.jpg|14895], which I think does a much better, kinder, more humanizing job of describing people who live in poverty, lack education, distrust western medicine, and struggle with health issues.
I did learn a lot about HeLa cells and I think the book is important in that it humanizes Henrietta Lacks herself and gives context to the dubious scientific and medical practices that were acceptable and commonplace at the time. I was fascinated to learn more about the medical breakthroughs that have been achieved with HeLa cells, and wish these parts were more descriptive and scientific (a criticism I often have of pop-sci pieces). But most of the book actually was not about HeLa cells or Henrietta, but rather about her descendants. If this had been executed differently, I think this is a good inclusion, but as it stands it left a bad taste in my mouth.
For comparison, I wish this book was more like [b:The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures|12609|The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures|Anne Fadiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432610033l/12609._SY75_.jpg|14895], which I think does a much better, kinder, more humanizing job of describing people who live in poverty, lack education, distrust western medicine, and struggle with health issues.