The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
Many people have raved about ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ and really, who am I to disagree. But I do. In some ways, this was a really great book, but in the end, the writer spoiled it for me.
Henrietta Lacks suffered from an incredibly aggressive form of cervical cancer back in the 1950’s. Uniquely, a routine sample from her tumour grew and grew at a time when cell culture was in its infancy: and her cells went on to change the course of medical history.
This book has really got three different stories going on at the same time. First, there’s the science-y bit: what happens to the cells. They are sent round the world, they form the basis of the polio vaccine, they are used in cancer treatments, they even go up in spaceships to test how human tissues react in zero gravity conditions. And all the time, they keep growing and growing and growing. But these cells aren’t just meekly serving medical science: they also react in unexpected, unhelpful ways. They really do have a life of their own, and the scientists working with them sometimes feel overwhelmed.
Secondly, there are all the ethical issues which the book raises. This is the era of ‘doctor knows best.‘ Informed consent? Patient confidentiality? Meh. We are important men of science. We do what we like.
Not only does no-one ever ask the family, no one tells them what has been going on for years afterwards – and then, only because it occurs to them that the other family members might also be ‘useful’. One of the most striking moments occurs at the beginning of the book when one of the family members points out that medical science has made literally millions of dollars out of Henrietta’s cells – and yet her children can’t afford to go to the doctors. And there’s an extra layer of tension to all this: since Henrietta is a black woman and all the people making decisions are white men.
These bits of the book are really interesting. I’m not science-y at all, but I found this extremely readable and well told – I didn’t find it hard to follow at all. That’s a pretty striking achievement.
The trouble is that this readability didn’t work for me at all when it came to the third story. This is partly about the families struggle to deal with the consequences, but much more about the writer’s efforts to contact the family. I thought it was only natural that the family would be suspicious of yet another intrusion. Why she felt the need to create this faux-drama when Henrietta’s story has drama enough, I have no idea. No one wants to read a hugely boring biography that’s all dates and facts and what people had for lunch every single day, but you can go too far the other way. All biographers go on a sort of quest in pursuit of their subjects, but that’s really only interesting to them. I picked up this book to read Lacks’ story, not Skloot’s. I assume she thought was in keeping with the ‘real people behind the story’ type of approach – but it didn’t work for me. The last hundred pages, where she effectively goes on a road trip with Lacks’ daughter, just felt like filler.
I wouldn’t necessarily let this review put you off, because like I said, lots of people absolutely loved this book and found it profoundly affecting. In the interests of scientific objectivity, you might want to check out a few of them:
For me, as Hilary Mantel says: ‘It would have been better to trust the story and tell it in as straighforward a way as possible’.
Posted on November 1, 2010, in Uncategorized and tagged book reviews, books, henrietta lacks, rebecca skloot, science, the immortal life of henrietta sacks. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
Thanks for linking to my review, Tea!
I thought the story of Henrietta Lacks was fascinating – I didn’t know anything about it until I read Skloot’s book, and now it seems I’ve read about HeLa cells in several newspaper articles.
One of my book group members did question Skloot’s tactics, she wondered: “whether the dogged research Skloot performed, relentlessly phoning and visiting the Lacks family until she wore them down, was also taking advantage of them. The member wondered why if “no” didn’t really mean “no” when it was spoken by a poor black family.”
Your points are well taken — when does research cross the line into invasion of privacy?
Sorry this one didn’t work as well for you as it did for me; as they say, “different strokes …”
I completely agree with your friend – the relentless phoning was really over the top, I thought. The writer seemed to think she knew what was best for the family (to have this book written about them). You also mention another thing I was a little bit bemused by – the tone is very much ‘I have discovered this great mystery….’ but as you say, actually, her story is pretty well known judging by the number of articles. I think it’s a book worth reading but a lot of things niggle me about it!
I think I might feel similarly to you when I get around to reading this book. The sciency bit sounds really interesting, as does the bit on power-relations. As a historian, or well aspiring historian, I do sometimes find it fascinating to read about the way research is done (I’d love to know more about that, because really, most people just tell you that “you just do it”). But it doesn’t sound fitting to this story. And I do wonder like Dawn’s friend said whether it wasn’t crossing the line to keep trying to contact the family. As a researcher, I think I would maybe have pointed that out about my own research.
I’m really glad to hear your review on this book. I keep hearing great things about it, but more along the lines of amazing information (like Food Inc.) as opposed to amazing writing. I find that with nonfiction, authors often have a difficult time paring down their research, experience, and thoughts into the simplest, most accessible form.
Totally agree. Great review.
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