# Okay. So I didn't like "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 8, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338 "2011-07-08T18:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/41 "2011-07-10T18:42:32Z")
See, I liked the book, but stopped reading it as of the last chapter. I started to get bored with it. Disclaimer: I regularly put a book down at the last chapter or three because I get bored. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/42 "2011-07-10T22:43:28Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > In any case, must run. There’s a martini social I’m late for and there’s a Proust pun I have been simply _dying_ to try out on somebody and I think Muffy and C.C. might just be the ones! (They’re really top drawer… r-e-a-l-l-y top drawer.) Played ping-pong with them lately? I hear they were in a match with someone who stepped on the ball… ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@Clark\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_K)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/43 "2011-07-11T03:34:50Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > I have to agree with **Sampiro**. Back during the Jim Crow days, Ms. Lacks received exemplary, state-of-the-art care as a charity case. I don’t think that was brought out enough. > I do think the 4 or 5 children should have either received free care or medical insurance out of goodwill. Yes, it was the 1950s, but here was an abused woman, repeatedly infected with syphilis by her SOB partner, and neither the public health authorities (mandatory reporting of contagious disease, anyone?) or the police were notified. > I don’t think the 2nd generation deserves anything, however. Fine. You don’t think they deserve anything and they didn’t get anything. It’s all hunky dory. What does that have to do with the quality of the book? Did you find it interesting? Did it teach you something new? Did it introduce you to new people and new viewpoints? Regarding the author helping the family, this is from a New York Times story: "She created the Henrietta Lacks Foundation to help Mrs. Lacks’s descendants, some of whom suffered from the whirlwind of publicity, misinformation and scam artists surrounding HeLa cells, not to mention a lack of insurance to pay for any of the medical advances Mrs. Lacks’s cells made possible. * * * "The foundation — which is still in the process of applying for tax-exempt status from the I.R.S.— is paying for a high-tech hearing aid for Mrs. Lacks’s youngest son, Zakariyya; truck repairs for her middle son, Sonny; new teeth for her granddaughter Kimberly; braces for her great-granddaughter Aiyana Rodgers; and, yes, tuition, books and fees for five of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. * * * “To aid Henrietta Lacks’s three surviving sons, Ms. Skloot said that she made sure that they were hired as consultants for the HBO film.” [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/books/05lacks.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/books/05lacks.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/44 "2011-07-11T03:52:56Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Played ping-pong with them lately? I hear they were in a match with someone who stepped on the ball… Then they went to get a new one from the supply closet and… you won’t believe this! It was _locked_! You could practically write a book about it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/45 "2017-03-31T15:37:50Z")
Bump for [a movie due out in three weeks](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/on-the-eve-of-an-oprah-movie-about-henrietta-lacks-an-ugly-feud-consumes-the-family/2017/03/28/d33d3418-1248-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop) (that I just learned about today.) And looks like some members of the family are still bitter, angry, feuding, and looking for ways to get rich from it. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/46 "2017-03-31T15:45:03Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > This post is genius on so many levels. Brilliant. No, it is not. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/47 "2017-04-24T19:45:21Z")
Since it doesn’t have its own thread, I’ll just tack on to this one that I watched the HBO movie this weekend and thought Oprah’s performance was absolutely brilliant. You forget you’re watching “Oprah” and you’re seeing an indigent uneducated extremely intelligent woman with a plague of mental and physical issues. I know this woman, I’ve worked with her (when I was in mental health and as a public librarian especially) and she’s just a perfectly fleshed out and ensouled character. Madame O knocked it out of the park. She was an unknown when she portrayed Sophia in _The Color Purple_ and it was a similar thing of beauty. Her performances are so infrequent I forget between them just how marvelous she is. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/48 "2017-04-24T20:07:46Z")
Compared to the book, I thought the movie glossed over quite a bit. It was barely 90 minutes long. They could have delved more into Henrietta’s illness and treatment. Instead we got bare seconds of her clenching her hands while they were inserting the radium into her cervix (just damn.) Oprah was wonderful, but I think they could have taken their time and fleshed this out some more. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/49 "2017-04-25T10:25:10Z")
I would’ve preferred a straight up documentary approach with far more background on both the science and Henrietta’s life instead of in an intro montage and some flashbacks. The importance of HeLa is a plot device giving the tragedy of the Lacks family, and Oprah’s character specifically, a scientific, historical and moral grounding. Oprah does a great job, I just would’ve preferred a different approach. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/50 "2017-06-22T10:55:45Z")
Oh hey, I’m bumping an old thread for no reason. (I came back to this site, and this is here, so.) After some time and hindsight, I wish I’d had highlighted how much I dislike the author, rather than the family. She is completely full of shit in every way. Yes, the picture she paints of the fam isn’t super swell, but why does she waste so much time in the book painting them at all? What the fuck was her agenda? She didn’t like them, so she wanted to write a book to convince everyone else not to like them too? So much of the narrative was her bitching about them, I at times started to wonder what was the point of this book in general. I almost want to watch this movie, but I was immediately turned off when I saw it was another Rebecca Skloot project. She’s awful. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/51 "2017-06-22T11:33:59Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Oh hey, I’m bumping an old thread for no reason. (I came back to this site, and this is here, so.) > > After some time and hindsight, I wish I’d had highlighted how much I dislike the author, rather than the family. She is completely full of shit in every way. Yes, the picture she paints of the fam isn’t super swell, but why does she waste so much time in the book painting them at all? What the fuck was her agenda? She didn’t like them, so she wanted to write a book to convince everyone else not to like them too? So much of the narrative was her bitching about them, I at times started to wonder what was the point of this book in general. > > I almost want to watch this movie, but I was immediately turned off when I saw it was another Rebecca Skloot project. She’s awful. Nice to see you back for a visit, **MeanOldLady**. Have some pie. Yeah, she portrays them as so dysfunctional. It highlights their plight in contrast to the importance of the HeLa strain in modern science, but it is almost suffering porn. I suppose what bugs me a little is that money is made to be a central issue, with a big scene when Oprah confronts the author and the author finally snaps back and shows how little money she had at that time. At the end, it is stated that the author started a foundation for the family. Cool, but there is no indication is they have been able to change their situations, benefit from better healthcare, etc. If the movie is about their suffering, and we all see that the book is a huge success, why isn’t their a brief epilogue showing how the family has benefitted? Did the book matter or not? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/52 "2017-06-22T13:34:10Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Oh hey, I’m bumping an old thread for no reason. (I came back to this site, and this is here, so.) > > After some time and hindsight, I wish I’d had highlighted how much I dislike the author, rather than the family. She is completely full of shit in every way. Yes, the picture she paints of the fam isn’t super swell, but why does she waste so much time in the book painting them at all? What the fuck was her agenda? She didn’t like them, so she wanted to write a book to convince everyone else not to like them too? So much of the narrative was her bitching about them, I at times started to wonder what was the point of this book in general. > > I almost want to watch this movie, but I was immediately turned off when I saw it was another Rebecca Skloot project. She’s awful. Disclaimer: didn’t read the whole thread. The author probably had a word quota to meet. And a lazy editor. It’s definitely an important story worth telling and knowing. There are other documentaries-- google them if interested. (But you already know the story.) \*Law & Order \*did an episode, [“Immortal,”](https://allthingslawandorder.blogspot.com/2010/05/law-order-immortal-recap-review.html) loosely based on the Lacks story. BTW, when our book club read it, I skipped it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/53 "2021-10-04T20:57:47Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > The discussion of medical ethics is alright, but the way they kept talking up this woman as if she were of some great value and it was a huge crime that her family wasn’t rich and famous was just bizarre. Well, they still have cartoon dollar-signs in their eyes: > **[Henrietta Lacks' family sues biotech company over cells, says it "chose to...](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/henrietta-lacks-cells-estate-sues-thermo-fisher/)** > > Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.​ is accused of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338.md?page=2)