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A review by prettypious
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
5.0
I avoided this book for a long time. I felt like I knew the Henrietta Lacks story really well, and I was aware the author was a white woman so I didn't have a longing for the book because I didnt think there would be too much new info added. By the time I had read 15% of the book, I realized I knew the story of Henrietta Lacks but I was not aware of everything she and her family had been through. I do think it's problematic that the family members were not able to write their own book and tell their own stories; however, it seems from the book that she did a lot of research, used a lot of primary sources, and engaged in countless interviews with the family, especially the youngest daughter, Deborah, who unfortunately passed away the day the books were released for preorder. This is important only because you have to trust that she felt that the author convey her story and experiences the way that she told it.
Ok getting that all of that out of the way this was a really good book. It is written almost as two books in one---one the scientific/technical part that explains the HeLa cells and the importance of Henrietta Lacks' cells to the science community and how they used it to improve public health. The other is this other ugly story of racism in the U.S. institutions, specifically the medical field. This part was really REALLY hard to read especially when they talk about the mistreatment of Ms. Henrietta Lacks and her daughter Elsie, the exploitation of the family by those trying to take advantage of them, the pain they dealt with related to losing their mom and also having the government and Hopkins play in their faces with their constant attempts to dehumanize and their moms. It was a lot.
Two parts of the book are going to stick with me for awhile. One, when the author and Deborah visit facility where her sister Elsie was committed up through when Pastor Pullum walker her down and when the scientist at Hopkins showed Deborah and her brother Zachariyya, Henrietta Lacks' youngest son, their mother's cells and explained how to use the microscope to view it and then explained the actual cell and what they were seeing.
Ok getting that all of that out of the way this was a really good book. It is written almost as two books in one---one the scientific/technical part that explains the HeLa cells and the importance of Henrietta Lacks' cells to the science community and how they used it to improve public health. The other is this other ugly story of racism in the U.S. institutions, specifically the medical field. This part was really REALLY hard to read especially when they talk about the mistreatment of Ms. Henrietta Lacks and her daughter Elsie, the exploitation of the family by those trying to take advantage of them, the pain they dealt with related to losing their mom and also having the government and Hopkins play in their faces with their constant attempts to dehumanize and their moms. It was a lot.
Two parts of the book are going to stick with me for awhile. One, when the author and Deborah visit facility where her sister Elsie was committed up through when Pastor Pullum walker her down and when the scientist at Hopkins showed Deborah and her brother Zachariyya, Henrietta Lacks' youngest son, their mother's cells and explained how to use the microscope to view it and then explained the actual cell and what they were seeing.