The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
Crown, Feb 2010 384 Pages

I first learned about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks through Women’s Voices For Change. Chris Lombardi reviewed the book, and interviewed the author. It piqued my curiosity: using the story of Henrietta and her family to tackle complex questions about medicine, scientific discovery and ethics.

In 1951, Johns Hopkins Medical Center was the only hospital in Baltimore that would treat black patients. Henrietta Lacks was treated there for aggressive cervical cancer. During her treatment, doctors took a biopsy of cells on her cervix. And took a few more tissue samples, for their own experimental use. Doctors didn’t tell Henrietta and her family they were doing this. One of the larger issues Skloot’s book addresses is the concept of informed consent. Ethical considerations between doctor and patient- confidentiality and communication that we might take for granted now, are relatively recent in standard medical practice.

Lacks’s cancer was aggressive- the tumors spread, and killed her. And that could have been the end of her story- a malignant disease, and a grieving family. But… scientists ran tests on the cells they’d biopsied. And they found that Henrietta Lacks’s cells would grow fast and much more easily than anything else they’d tried to culture in the lab before. HeLa cells became a focal point for all kinds of testing and medical advances, without the scientists knowing much about the woman they’d been taken from. And without Henrietta’s family knowing anything about the cells that had been taken.

When Lacks’ relatives found out, they were scared, outraged. Even as she explores the larger themes of scientific discovery and ethics that give Henrietta’s story greater context, Skloot focuses closely on the emotional impact on the Lacks family.  As bits of information filter from the scientific world to the Lacks family, science gets misinterpreted, twisted into frightening fictions. So, part of the work Skloot has to do in getting close to the personal story, is undo the damage done by decades of misinformation and no information at all.

I wish this book had been written 10 or 15 years ago. In college, I took a fascinating medical anthropology course. The focus was on medical practice in social context, especially with regard to women and class. This book would have been a perfect fit for class discussion. It’s exactly the kind of investigative science writing I find most fascinating: medicine in its cultural contexts, the way scientific assumptions get shaped by the assumptions we take for granted as a society. Skloot does a decently clear job explaining the ways biologists are working with HeLa cells.

But, for all my fascination with a complex medical narrative- there’s a certain degree of sheer masochism in reading  this. As interested as I am in the intersection of science and culture, reading about some of the treatments Henrietta went through, and the pain she was in was harrowing. I can be pretty squeamish about descriptions of medical procedures. So, reading some of what was done to Henrietta was harrowing. Obviously, both medical science and standards of ethics have improved since Henrietta was treated for cervical cancer- but those early chapters are not for the delicate sensibility. I might have stifled a few shrieks of disgust. They sewed vials of radioactive isotopes into her! They did procedures on her, in the name of treatment, that were painful and not all that well explained… and she was an obedient patient. Because she was a product of her time, she and her family never questioned the doctors’ edicts.

I wanted to scream for Henrietta the patient in pain. It was tough to read.

It was so viscerally scary for me to read about Henrietta’s hospitalizations that the things being done to her cells after the fact, felt much less harrowing. I was interested in the way the science worked, which Skloot did a good job of explaining. Some of the time spent with Lacks’s relatives was absolutely heartbreaking- that scientists could be putting HeLa cells to lucrative use, while her surviving family was barely scraping by between one personal tragedy and the next. Although making herself, a white, educated woman, a central perspective character in the story, makes for some uneasy power balances, Skloot treats the Lacks’ story with dignity and a certain amount of grace.

If you’re so inclined, address a haggis. 

Yesterday, at the Poets House, I went looking for Scottish poetry. It’s not all wee sleekit timorous beasties, you know. Here are some Scottish poets I’ve enjoyed.

Ron Butlin- my parents and I saw a performance of “Vivaldi and the Number 3″ in Edinburgh over the summer.  I have a collection of his poems, called “Ragtime in Unfamiliar Bars” that I bought for the title, as much as for loving the poems inside. Read  ”A Recipe for Whisky“

Liz Lochhead- she’s currently the Scottish Makar, the rough equivalent of the poet laureate. Read “A Saturday Poem.” Or Trouble is not my middle name

And here’s a lovely trove of recent Scottish poetry from The Scottish Poetry Library. Just click on the years to read poems from each.

William McGonagall is largely regarded to have been the Worst Poet Ever. Wonder if he knew it at the time…

I find the procedures and mechanics fascinating- how to do shelf-checks, proper ways to answer reference questions, and on and on. I’ll be writing more about that here, of course.

And then there’s the sudden knowledge that… all kinds of places have corporate archives and libraries!

1. Newspapers! A librarian for the Ledger was lovely and encouraging as I applied to library science school. I wonder if newspaper libraries are still called the morgue….

2. The NFL!!! I started to wonder about this one on Sunday… their corporate headquarters is right here in NYC. I suspect their library has a lot of video footage, and a librarian on call during games to grab things for highlight reels and montages!

3. Publishing houses… though I know from the Poet’s House, how tempting it can be to walk the shelves full of interesting things to read. Not that this is a bad thing!

4. Special collections through the NYPL… Although I’m pretty sure a rare book archive isn’t where I’m interested in working, I love the idea of being able to go gawk and explore. 

5. The New York Historical Society. Then, maybe I’d finally learn about my city the way I’ve been promising myself I would, oh, forever.

And more… it’s a lovely daydream!

Jan: 12
U is for Undertow - Sue Grafton
Labyrinth - Kat Richardson
Finishing the Hat - Stephen Sondheim
Earth: the Book - Jon Stewart
America: the Book - Jon Stewart
The Scarlet Pimpernel- Baroness Orczy
Foiled - Jane Yolen
Superman: Red Son - Mark Miller
Muppet King Arthur - Joanna Stokes
The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Ted Chiang
Just Like the Ones We Used To Know - Connie Willis
Zits Supersized - Jerry Scott

Feb: 6 (18)
I read the following Russian books:
Tolstoy on the Brink
Princess Sartre
The Dostoevsky Diaries
Forever Nabokov

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Seth Grahame-Smith
Inside Job - Connie Willis

March: 8 (26)
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
Murder on Astor Place - Victoria Thompson
The Two Georges - Harry Turtledove
Summerland - Michael Chabon
Ball Four - Jim Boutan
Jellico Road - Melina Marchetta
10 short stories

April: 13 (39)
One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built - Alexander McCall Smith
Then Everything Changed - Jeff Greenfield
Valor's Choice - Tanya Huff
The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl (reread)
Narbonic 1-6
Jeremy & Dad: A ZITS Tribute-ish to Fathers and Sons

May: 10 (49)
WWW: Wonder - Robert Sawyer
The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Double Comfort Safari Club - Alexander McCall Smith
Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris
Summon the Keeper - Tanya Huff
The Second Summoning - Tanya Huff
The Queen of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
Jeremy and Mom - Jerry Scott

June: 8 (57)
Remake - Connie Willis (novella)
Jane Jones, Worst Vampire Ever - Caissie St. Onge
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party - Alexander McCall Smith
The King of Attolia - Megan Turner Whalen
Akata Witch - Nnedi Okorafor
Long Hot Summoning - Tanya Huff
Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon
A Singular Woman - Janny Scott

July: 8 (65)
Heartless - Gail Carriger
Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris
Murder on Sisters' Row - Victoria Thaompson
Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
The Better Part Of Valor - Tanya Huff
A Conspiracy of Kings - Megan Turner Whalen
Big Honkin' Zits - Jerry Scott

August: 11 (76)
Twilight - Stephanie Meyers
Bloodhound - Tamora Pierce
Ghost Story - Jim Butcher
Smokin' Seventeen - Janet Evanovich
Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell
From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
The Black Garden - Thomas de Waal
The Heart of Valor - Tanya Huff
10 short stories

September: 8 (84)
The Last Werewolf - Glen Duncan
The President and the Assassin - Scott Miller
Robopocalypse - Daniel Wilson
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
Nothing to Envy - Barbara Demick
Random Zits - Jerry Scott

October: 8 (92)
Raising Stony Mayhall - Daryl Gregory
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
The Magicians - Les Grossman
Guards, Guards - Terry Pratchett
Nation - Terry Pratchett
Leviathan Wakes - James S.A. Corey
Snuff - Terry Pratchett
Alternative Zits - Jerry Scott

November: 6 (98)
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
The Wild Ways - Tanya Huff
Zombie, Ohio - Scott Kenemore
Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders - Gyles Brandreth
10 short stories
Sunday Brunch - Jerry Scott

December: 5 (103)
Government Issue: Comics for the People - Richard Graham
V is for Vengeance - Sue Grafton
Without Hesitation - Hugh Shelton
Dearly, Departed - Lia Habel
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum/Eric Shanower

I’m starting graduate school in library and information science. Digging into the reading for my classes. So much reading! Much of the assigned reading is online or in PDF form, as the coursework covers both traditional-physical bookshelf-space libraries, and management of digital information storage. So, can do reading on a computer screen. Which has its good points and its bad points.

I miss paper. I think better about what I read if I have a pen or a highlighter in my hand, spreading ink around and marking things up.

I think multicolored highlighters got me through high school. And college! Or, at least, got me used to learning in both environments, past the overwhelmed and bewildered first stages where everything was new (and kind of alarming.)

I had a system: green for new vocab, orange for thematic main points and either yellow or pink for the details that relate to the main points. With plenty of space for writing in the margins: “really?” “see also: this other reading” “nut graf!” (I am a journalist’s daughter.)

One class down, initial panic over assignments has sort of subsided. There’s a lot of reading to get done! But it’s interesting library science stuff, and policy, and the mysterious guts of libraries. Will repeat process of alarm/bewildering/boggling tonight, in my other class for the semester. Of this I have no doubt.

I have a snazzy new laptop, nice and light. And every inch of my body is grateful that I do not have the textbooks I remember hauling around in high school! (I know there were a few days I was surprised I was upright.)

But screen reading is passive, ephemeral. Not to mention, monochromatic. So what’s the solution? Printing lots and lots of paper? Awkward, environmentally unsound, and potentially expensive.

Still need to figure this out… How to take notes without breaking the bank or killing tons of trees… how to get what I want and need from the technology available.  And it seems like the sort of thing a librarian should be able to solve. Even a slightly perplexed neophyte like me.

by Nancy Bilyeau

My debut novel, “The Crown,” is a historical thriller set in Tudor England. My protagonist is a Dominican novice forced into a conspiracy and quest that could stop the Reformation. I chose this time period because of a nearly lifelong obsession with all things Tudor. I’ve given up trying to make sense of it. I just know that I’m happiest when I’m in my Tudorverse.

If you love the 16^th century, then you not only read the books but also watch the films and TV shows. It’s possible I’ve seen every show set in the 1500’s, and I find something to adore in each and every one. Showtime’s “The Tudors,” starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, lured a lot of new people to the party while infuriating the stalwarts for its license with facts. (Henry’s two sisters merged into one who married the decrepit king of Portugal and then murdered him—NO WORDS for how wrong this all is.) But in its defense, when the series hewed closer to historical truth, such as the sequence showing the harrowing execution of Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dorner), it was very fine indeed. And I enjoyed the performances of James Frain as Thomas Cromwell and Sam Neill as Cardinal Wolsey. Henry VIII did have an eye for executive talent as well as female flesh.

As for recent feature films, the two best known are “Elizabeth,” starring Cate Blanchett as the (Not in This Film) Virgin Queen, and “The Other Boleyn Girl,” with Natalie Dormer and Scarlett Johanson as two (Very Impatient) Ladies-in-Waiting.

I would have to say, though, that it is these five Tudor movies that are closest to my heart:

1.)   “Anne of a Thousand Days.” (1969) A wonderful costume drama starring Genevieve Bujold as a spitfire Anne Boleyn holding off Richard Burton’s Henry VIII with insults: “You make love as you eat, with a great deal of noise and no subtlety!” These two have fiery chemistry, especially when she’s telling him off on the way to the Tower of London.

2.)   “Shakespeare in Love.” (1998) It captures the magic of inspiration as Joseph Fiennes finds his way to write plays through his mad adoration of Gwyneth Paltrow. Also, Dame Judi Dench makes a sensational Elizabeth I while looking nothing like her and saying words Our Bess would never utter. But Dench pulls it off.

3.)   “Man for All Seasons” (1966) Sir Thomas More does not seem to be faring well these days—for some reason he’s out of favor. Regardless, this is a very well written film that explores the life of a man who must follow his conscience, and loses his life because of it.

4.)   “Orlando” (1992)  I love this movie because it is just so bizarre. Elizabeth I played by Quentin Crisp? A young nobleman who never ages and changes gender? Oh… why not. It’s based on a Virginia Woolf story. And there’s that great ice skating scene with visiting Russians.

5.)    “The Sea Hawk” (1940) I am fully aware that “Essex and Elizabeth” has a “real” story in it AND the wondrous Bette Davis, but in this Errol Flynn movie you get insanely fun sword duels with Flynn as a pirate  taking on the Spanish fleet. And Flora Robson makes a smashing Queen Bess too.

Nancy Bilyeau, author of The Crown

Nancy Bilyeau’s debut novel, The Crown was released by Simon and Schuster/Touchstone in January, 2012, to rave reviews from Entertainment Weekly, O Magazine, and of course, my blog. Thanks again, Nancy, for sharing your top 5!- E

And then there’s the temperature. Most vampire characters I’ve read have chilly skin, icy skin, cold skin… lacking a pulse and ordinary circulation, that’s understandable.

Am I practical to the point of unromantic, for wondering about the logistics.?

Icy cold undead feet in the bed! 

No thank you! My feet are cold enough!

And then, there’s a romance in The Iron King  where the cold-blooded paramour is not a bloodsucker but… still! I don’t get the snuggling up to something that might give you freezer burn.

Then again, this is all moot, because I don’t consider brooding an aphrodisiac.

“Can you recommend some poetry?” he asked. I felt about 10 feet tall. My day was made!

He didn’t give me much to go on, because he hadn’t really read poetry before. I wanted to ask him all sorts of nosy questions about what brought on this sudden interest. But I didn’t want to badger him into fleeing my enthusiasm. I started to fish for guidance. “What kind of music do you like? what kinds of poems do you want to read?”

“Nature,” he said. No problem, Robert Frost. On my way to that shelf, I found one of the full-time Poet’s House staff. I brought her up to speed, and asked her for any suggestions. I found a Robert Frost collection that wasn’t too gigantic and settled him in one of the comfy chairs.

then I went hurtling over to the anthologies, to find a few that might work as introductions. Of course, I grabbed poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins. It’s one of my favorites. It’s a good introduction to contemporary stuff. Nature, though? I have a little trouble coming up with nature poetry off the top of my head. What else should I have suggested?

he also asked for love poetry. Again, anthologies to the rescue. We have a section for love and erotica. I also recommended Pablo Neruda, because the Captain’s Verses are beautifully sexy.

It was just so exciting to have somebody I could help. Think of all the poems he hasn’t read yet, and the delight when he discovers them. It was also great fun to have somebody who is basically a blank slate for poetry, ready to listen to my opinions and be steered. I’m still kicking myself a little bit over the nature poetry aspect because I went immediately for Robert Frost. He’s part of the literary canon. Dead white guy. I love the poems of his that I know (his house is in the village though… see what I did there?) I missed an opportunity to turn this guy on to Derek Walcott, or somebody talking about a part of nature, that isn’t New England.

I should really make a list or several of go to poets. Have I mentioned how much I love this internship?

The Iron King (Harlequin Teen)
Julie Kagawa
Harlequin Teen
368 pages

Meghan Chase thinks she has an ordinary, even boring life. Living in a small town with her mother, stepfather and stepbrother Ethan, her only friend is a boy named Robbie, who has an annoying habit of calling her Princess. And then she starts to see things that don’t entirely make sense.
When her brother disappears, whisked off to Faeryland, she has no choice but to go find him. She knows it’s going to be dangerous. And Robbie won’t let her go alone. Because he’s spent some time in faery himself.

There are plenty of similarities between this narrative and Labyrinth, because it draws on the tradition of journeying to faeryland, of changelings, and of the uneasy truce between our world and Faery. Fewer songs, of course.

Kagawa’s take on faery myth and identity blends the traditional lore with some excellent innovations. I’m always going to like a blend of modern settings and folklore, pretty much. And I especially like it here, in the way Kagawa sets the traditional idea of cold iron against the technological advances of the industrial age. Traditionally, cold iron is poison to faeries and saps their magic. Kagawa takes it a step further, with a few touches that verge on steampunk. Because she creates emotionally grounded characters, even the mythical ones, it’s easy to be invested in the fate of faeryland, and in the danger faced by those who want to protect Meghan as she searches for her brother.

I also like the added weight placed on bargains and promises. In traditional tales, they matter. The way Meghan experiences that in practice is artfully done.
I gather this is the start of a series. I’m eager to read the next.