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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Now a major motion picture from HBO® starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne.Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same...
Now a major motion picture from HBO® starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne.Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same...
Reviews-
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This multifaceted story interweaves a mini-biography of Henrietta Lacks and her family with an insider's look at the history of medical research and Skloot's journey to unlock the secrets of both. Lacks was a terminal cancer patient, and the cells doctors preserved (without her knowledge or consent) led to many medical breakthroughs. Interestingly, Caucasian Cassandra Campbell admirably portrays African-American Lacks and her associates, while only the small part of Lacks's daughter is assigned to fellow African-American Bahni Turpin. The fine narration underscores the pain and frustration her family feels after Lacks' death, the purloining of her cells, and the world's failure to recognize her role. However difficult it is to acknowledge unscrupulous medical experimentation, Campbell's star quality rivets listeners to this tribute to one whose life continues to improve health care worldwide. J.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from October 5, 2009
Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about “faith, science, journalism, and grace.” It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different women—Skloot and Deborah Lacks—sharing an obsession to learn about Deborah’s mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell line—known as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henrietta’s death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children. Skloot’s portraits of Deborah, her father and brothers are so vibrant and immediate they recall Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s Random Family.
Writing in plain, clear prose, Skloot avoids melodrama and makes no judgments. Letting people and events speak for themselves, Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society’s most vulnerable people. -
Entertainment Weekly
"I could not put the book down . . . The story of modern medicine and bioethics--and, indeed, race relations--is refracted beautifully, and movingly." - New York Times Book Review "Science writing is often just about 'the facts.' Skloot's book, her first, is far deeper, braver, and more wonderful."
- Wired.com "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a triumph of science writing...one of the best nonfiction books I have ever read."
- Washington Post "A deftly crafted investigation of a social wrong committed by the medical establishment, as well as the scientific and medical miracles to which it led."
- Chicago Sun-Times "Riveting...a tour-de-force debut."
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Nature
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"A real-life detective story, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks probes deeply into racial and ethical issues in medicine . . . The emotional impact of Skloot's tale is intensified by its skillfully orchestrated counterpoint between two worlds." - Essence "A jaw-dropping true story . . . raises urgent questions about race and research for 'progress' . . . an inspiring tale for all ages."
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The New Yorker
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"This extraordinary account shows us that miracle workers, believers, and con artists populate hospitals as well as churches, and that even a science writer may find herself playing a central role in someone else's mythology." -
SF Weekly
"Has the epic scope of Greek drama, and a corresponding inability to be easily
explained away." - The Financial Times "One of the great medical biographies of our time."
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Science
"Like any good scientific research, this beautifully crafted and painstakingly researched book raises nearly as many questions as it answers . . . In a time when it's fashionable to demonize scientists, Skloot generously does not pin any sins to the lapels of the researchers. She just lets them be human . . . [and] challenges much of what we believe of ethics, tissue ownership, and humanity." -
Laura Miller, Salon.com
"Indelible . . . The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a heroic work of cultural and medical journalism." -
Hilary Mantel, The Guardian (U.K.)
"No dead woman has done more for the living . . . a fascinating, harrowing, necessary book." -
Dallas Morning News
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks does more than one book ought to be able to do." -
Boston Globe
"Above all it is a human story of redemption for a family, torn by loss, and for a writer with a vision that would not let go." -
Paula J. Giddings, author of Ida, A Sword Among Lions; Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor, Afro-American Studies, Smith College
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"This remarkable story of how the cervical cells of the late Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman, enabled subsequent discoveries from the polio vaccine to in vitro fertilization is extraordinary in itself; the added portrayal of Lacks's full life makes the story come alive with her humanity and the palpable relationship between race, science, and exploitation." - Newsweek "Skloot's engaging, suspenseful book is an incredibly welcome addition for non-science wonks."
- The Telegraph (U.K.) "Extraordinary . . . If science has exploited Henrietta Lacks [Skloot] is determined not to. This biography ensures that she will never again be reduced to cells in a petri dish: she will always be Henrietta as well as HeLa."
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Baltimore Sun
"Brings the Lacks family alive . . . gives Henrietta Lacks another kind of immortality--this one through the discipline of good writing." - Los Angeles Times "A work of both heart and mind, driven by the author's passion for the story, which is as endlessly renewable as HeLa cells."
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Mother Jones
"In this gripping, vibrant book, Rebecca Skloot looks beyond the scientific marvels to explore the ethical issues behind a discovery that may have saved your life." -
Dwight Garner, New York Times, Top Ten Book of 2010
"More than ten years in the making, it feels like the book Ms. Skloot was born to write . . . Skloot, a young science journalist and an indefatigable researcher, writes about Henrietta Lacks and her impact on modern medicine from almost every conceivable angle and manages to make all of them fascinating . . . a searching moral inquiry into greed and blinkered lives . . . packed with memorable characters." -
The Journal of Clinical Investigation
"Astonishing . . .No matter how much you may know about basic biology, you will be amazed by this book." -
THEROOT.COM
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"Rebecca Skloot did her job, and she did it expertly . . . A riveting narrative that is wh
