The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, True Story about Idealism and Faith in Science

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400052173
• ISBN-13: 978-1400052172
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches

”The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks brings to mind the work of Philip K. Dick and Edgar Allan Poe. But this tale is true. Rebecca Skloot explores the racism and greed, the idealism and faith in science that helped to save thousands of lives but nearly destroyed a family. This is an extraordinary book, haunting and beautifully told.”—ERIC SCHLOSSER, author of Fast Food Nation  

Equal parts history, psychological drama, expose and character study, Rebecca Skloot's gripping debut is a deeply affecting tour de force that effortlessly bridges the gap between science and the mainstream.

Her subject is the multilayered drama behind one of the most important--and in many ways, problematic--advances of modern medicine. Captivated by the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor African-American woman whose cervical cancer cells (dubbed HeLa) were the first immortalized cells grown in culture and became ubiquitous in laboratories around the world, Skloot set out to learn more about the person whose unwitting "donation" of the cells transformed biomedical research in the last century. Her research ultimately spanned a decade and found her navigating (and to some extent, mediating) more than 50 years of rage over the white scientific establishment's cavalier mistreatment and exploitation of the poor, especially African Americans.

Skloot deftly weaves together an account of Lacks's short life (she died at age 31) and torturous death from an extremely aggressive form of cancer; the parallel narrative concerning her cells; and the sometimes harrowing, sometimes amusing chronicle of Skloots's own interactions with Lacks's surviving (and initially hostile and uncooperative) family members. Moving comfortably back and forth in time, the richly textured story that emerges brings into stark relief the human cost of scientific progress and leaves the reader grappling with many unanswered questions about the ethics of the scientific endeavor, past and present. While the goals of biomedical research may be noble, how they are achieved is not always honorable, particularly where commercialization of new technologies is at stake. Skloot offers a clear-eyed perspective, highlighting the brutal irony of a family whose matriarch was a pivotal figure in everything from the development of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine to AIDS research to cancer drugs, yet cannot afford the very medical care their mother's cells helped facilitate, with predictable consequences.

The LA Times book review section named Skloot one of its four "Faces to Watch in 2010," an honor that, based on "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is well-deserved.(Daffy Du, Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program)

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Game Change Book Just Gossip?

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Harper; X edition (January 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061733636
• ISBN-13: 978-0061733635
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  

Most of the sources in this book are not identified, and that's no surprise, because most of this book is pure tabloid gossip. Gossip is fun, but when people close to a candidate -- the inner circle -- spill their guts to reporters for whatever purpose -- revenge? vindication? a chance to say "it wasn't my fault"? -- the result is merely embarrassing. I didn't need to know this stuff and, frankly, I don't know more about the 2008 campaign because I've read this book.

What is interesting about this book is its negative portrayal of virtually every woman involved in the campaign, most of whom are described, at one point or another in the account, as "hysterical," "paranoid," "unstable," "emotionally unbalanced," loud, abrasive -- you get the picture. Only Michelle Obama escapes such stereotyping and, while I love Michelle to bits, I can't believe that she was the only sane woman on the 2008 campaign trail.

Intelligent, educated, ambitious, women aren't crazy, dear authors: they just have a low tolerance for incompetent, narcissistic, macho guys. Cases in point: (1) Palin may be no genius, and may have been totally unprepared to run for high office, but her handlers in the McCain campaign had virtually no idea how to prepare her for interviews, public scrutiny and a national campaign. She shut down, not because she's "mentally unstable," but because she was overloaded and unprepared; (2) Elizabeth Edwards had plenty to scream about; what she should have done was hit her intellectually superficial, immoral lunkhead of a husband with a brick; (3) of course Hillary was stunned and upset by her loss in Iowa; she'd been told by everyone who worked for her, and the media, that she was a front runner. What did you expect her to do; slap her thighs and yodel "the sun will come out tommorrow"?

The fact that the authors were merely repeating gossip, rather than examining what was said critically, does not respond to the above criticism, but merely proves the point that this book is insider back-biting and a waste of time. Verdict: Undocumented, tabloid, sexist and not credible. (rctny)


For Further Info: 
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime