If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics: Thanks for joining us for Chapters 1-3 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot! Join in next Monday for Chapters 4-6. So many important discoveries and crucial medical research done without consent! Oh.my.goodness. The misdiagnosing issues, as well as the quote, “Like many doctors of his era, TeLinde often used patients from the public wards for research, usually without their knowledge,” made me cringe. invasive and to learn some of the fabulous histories behind the development of the Pap smear and early diagnosing strategies. I very much appreciated the brief, medical description of in situ vs. 1951.Ĭhapter 3 sent us back to 1951 as Henrietta learns of her diagnosis and goes back to the hospital for treatment. Learning details of her early life help cement her personality and spirit in my brain as I continue reading the book.Ĭhapter 3. Henrietta’s early days, though full of hardship and hardwork, seem also filled with love, family, and community. She moves to Baltimore to start a new life with her husband working in a steel mill. Eventually, though tobacco is a desired crop, small tobacco farms are hurting and Henrietta’s family is just making ends meet. We move steadily through over 20 years of her early life and watch as she starts having children and marries. We see Henrietta’s birth, her move to live with her grandfather, her life spent with cousins on a tobacco farm, and more. This chapter provides great historical background and context to Henrietta’s story. I cannot imagine fearing that a physician would ‘take my womb,’ and I ache for Henrietta. Letting that settle into my brain and into my heart took a few seconds. Strong distrust of medical institutions, doctors, and the government ran rampant in the South (and still do in some places). Sitting at my desk chair, as a white woman in the year 2017, this fear seems wild to me, almost preposterous. The author writes, “In those days, people didn’t talk about things like cancer, but Sadie always figured Henrietta kept it secret because she was afraid a doctor would take her womb and make her stop having children.”
Flashing back a bit, Henrietta is having a conversation with a cousin of hers (Sadie) about the “knot” in her womb but doesn’t go to the doctor. The first chapter launches us directly into Henrietta Lacks’s visit to the hospital where a physician takes a biopsy of her cervical tumor. Having the timeline defined each chapter is a really great resource. “Thank goodness,” I thought! The author explained in the introductory material that she would move around in time and I always worry about getting lost. Moving into Chapter 1, the first thing I noticed was the year marked at the top of the page. Given the racism and cultural misappropriation rampant in the US, I was specifically relieved to hear the author very specifically state how she went about collecting her information, verifying it, and maintaining the authentic voice of the authentic persons involved.
I appreciated how it introduced readers to the author and how it solidified the author’s viewpoint from that of the main characters. In addition to Chapter 1, I read all of the introduction material at the start of this book. If you’d like to have your reactions/comments for a specific chapter published on the Young Adult Voices blog, let me know by emailing I’ll be starting us off with Chapters 1-3 and next week other voices will start to fill the story in! You’ll hear how they react to each chapter as we go along and you’ll be given the opportunity in the comment section below each post to voice your own opinion as well. Each week, you’ll hear from a variety of voices of young adult cancer survivors. The young adult cancer book club is for you, and I’m looking forward to learning how you react to the chapters of this book. It was a close call between this choice and another (that read will become the Round 6 book club choice!) and I’m excited to read both. Let me start by saying, I’m really glad the Lacuna Loft community chose this book. Welcome to the comments and discussion of the Young Adult Cancer Book Club! We are reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot!
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