Picador The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

As a Life Sciences Graduate, I knew of the HeLa cells and of the woman behind the cells, but only by name. This book is very well researched, very well written and engaging. 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, perfectly narrated, touches on multiple topics, from segregation to biology. 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. It places scientific research, informed consent, and patient privacy in its historical context. The author has given life to the woman and her family besides her cells stored in the lab. A fascinating book. I highly recommend this book. I have followed the link directing to the foundation and am very please to read that donations have allowed so much for the lacks family. Finally, the author's passion, attention to details and strong desire to uncover the truth in addition to her genuine intentions and actions to help this family is admirable.

I did not enjoy this book. In my opinion the writer's style of writing is very plodding, faithfully recounting events but lacking the ability to draw the reader in. Reading this book felt like work. As other reviewers pointed out it is far too long. I did finish the book in part because I was very interested in the storey of the genesis of cell development but mostly I wanted to discover why it had received such a high proportion of 4 and 5 star ratings. I did not discover why, a disappointing treatment of a very interesting topic.

If one must read a book that provides a backdrop of power imbalance between those in authority and beneficiaries of services, the quasi-sanctification of the status quo, unethical medical research and marketing practices, the dehumanisation of the African American and commodification of the human body etc; this will be the book. Ms Skloot is a compelling writer.

Henrietta was a poor black woman who had worked since she was a small girl and had started bearing children when she was 14. There was every liklihood that she would never travel 10 miles from her home, and that nobody but close family would know her name. That is, until she developed malignant cervical cancer. Doctors took a cell sample from her and discovered that for the first time ever they had come across human cells that would multiply under laboratory conditions. Now, Hela cells can be found right across the world and have been used to research and find cures for several major diseases,as well as travelling into space during the first manned space mission.This book is exceptionally well written; the author makes the whole subject of cell mutation and biology accessible, whilst always keeping the focus on the real woman behind these petri dishes. The modern reader will be shocked as to how the cells were taken in the first place, and how a black woman in the segregated American South could expect to be treated once she had a terminal illness. As the Hela cells multiplied and multiplied, her children were left very much in the dark about their mother's legacy, and have an understandable struggle to cope with the concept that their mother is dead but her cells live on throughout the world; more of Henrietta's cells now exist in the world than were in her body when she was alive. The issues in this book are almost science fiction in their scope - except that this is very much science fact.There will ever be a story quite like Henrietta's, so the author had remarkable material to work with, but I also doubt whether any other writer would have handled it with such skill, sensitivity and intelligence as is found in this book.

Having decided that I had a shortfall in my general knowledge regarding Science i took a wander round the Popular Science section. This book caught my eye, mainly for its strange and unusual title, which sounded more like it belonged in the fiction section.The book certainly is not fiction, and tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman from Maryland who was dying of cervical cancer and from whom cells and samples were taken without her knowledge or informed consent which was the norm in the 50's particularly among black patients.Those cells grew and came to be known in the science world as He-La, and the story of the woman they came from became lost. The contribution of He-La to modern science is enormous, the cells have been used in the polio vaccine, cancer research and were even taken into space. Hence, her immortal lifeBut Skloot's book is most definitely not the story of the clump of cells referred to as He-La and their contribution to Science, it is the story of their donor Henrietta ever overlooked in the history of those cells, and particularly the impact this scientific use has had upon her husband and children.What follows is a moving tale of an uneducated family from a poor neighbourhood whose relationship to the He-La phenomenon has been forgotten and overlooked. Despite the millions of pounds He-La research has generated her family cannot afford to see the doctor when they are ill, and the idea that their mothers DNA is still living in laboratories throughout the world frightens them, they don't understand the science, and nobody's ever explained it.This book is not only a testament to Henrietta Lacks and her family, but the Herculean work done by the author, particularly to gain the trust of the family deserves respect. A unique piece of work marrying modern science and a true human interest story, I believe that everyone will find this book (despite it being non fiction and about Science) to be engaging in the same way as a novel or a biography. It is extremely well written and deserves an 8/10 from me