The author has given life to the woman and her family besides her cells stored in the lab. It places scientific research, informed consent, and patient privacy in its historical context. I have learnt far more in the book around the story of cell culture than I did in my undergrad and I wish we had been recommended this book. This book, perfectly narrated, touches on multiple topics, from segregation to biology. I have greatly enjoyed reading the story of the Lacks family, of Henrietta Lacks' life her background, her life, her personality, her children etc. This book is very well researched, very well written and engaging. Read it for Henrietta's life, which comprises about two or three chapters only(!) and know that nothing gets resolved re: gene/tissue ownership (for anyone) by the end of the book.Īs a Life Sciences Graduate, I knew of the HeLa cells and of the woman behind the cells, but only by name. I recommend getting this one from the library. The book reads like a book report that an overzealous white ninth-grade horsegirl would have to write on Beloved by Toni Morrison: self-congratulatory and constantly reminding people that she's not like the poor black folk just because she's telling you about their story.
The writing was nothing particularly special, the chronology of the book jumps around so much they've included a timeline to remind you where you are (though it does so to disguise a few minorly startling events). Henrietta Lacks had what happened to her happen because she was black, no doubt about that, but this book spends more time on explaining how the white woman gained the trust of Henrietta's remaining family than it does on the actual life of Henrietta Lacks! The book couldn't have been written without addressing race both in its history and in the underlying impact that segregation and underservice has had on communities. She explains how she didn't talk down to people in one breath and then in another breath explains how (in her eyes) uneducated x person is ("Do you know what a cell is?"). At on point the author relays an experience where she had to relay what she knew about how black people have historically been treated in medical situations and she seems to figuratively pat herself on the back for being able to name two situations. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks did not require that at all and yet for some reason a large portion of the book is devoted to showing how fair this white (and how often they remind us that she is white!) woman manages to surpass the absolute bottom of the barrel expectations the much-abused Lacks family has after decades upon decades of being taken advantage of by people who scarcely acknowledged their humanity. There are several stories which require the storyteller to insert themselves within the story to set the tone and context of their respective stories.
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