The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 381 pages

In 1951, a poor black woman, Henrietta Lacks, died of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Without her knowledge, or the knowledge of her family, the doctor that was treating her took a sample from her tumor to create a cell culture, the first one to thrive ceaselessly. Since 1951, that cell culture has continued to grow, and is now one of the most widely used cell cultures used in medical and scientific research. The HeLa cells have been used for a wide variety of medical breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine and several cancer treatments. Skloot's book explores the immortal life of these cells, as well as the life of Henrietta's family as they attempt to discover whatever they can about Henrietta and her cells.

This book is incredibly well written, presenting scientific facts clearly and mixing them with historical accounts, interviews and conversations with the Lacks family, and some first-person accounts of Skloot's research process to create a compelling narrative. I particularly appreciated the portions of the book dedicated to Henrietta's family, especially her daughter Debra, who seemed to be the most interested in learning about her mother and making sure that the world knows just who Henrietta Lacks is. This was a great book, and will appeal to those who have an interest in medical research, history, and biographies.

An additional note: I listened to the downloadable audiobook of this, and the narrator was superb. Cassandra Campbell also did the narration for Orange is the New Black, which I've also listened to, and in both, characters of various races and economic situations were presented well; they were easily distinguishable, but nobody became a stereotype, which would have been an easy trap to fall into. I may have to seek out more of Campbell's narrations.