{"id":99,"date":"2010-02-03T08:19:18","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T08:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/roddreher\/2010\/02\/the-amazing-tale-of-henrietta-lacks.html"},"modified":"2010-02-03T08:19:18","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T08:19:18","slug":"the-amazing-tale-of-henrietta-lacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/02\/the-amazing-tale-of-henrietta-lacks.html","title":{"rendered":"The amazing tale of Henrietta Lacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now this sounds like a book I want to read.<\/a> Excerpt from the NYT review:<\/p>\n

The best book blurb I’m aware of came from Roy Blount Jr., who said about Pete Dexter’s 1988 novel, “Paris Trout”: “I put it down once to wipe off the sweat.” I’m not sure I know what that means. Was the sweat on Mr. Blount’s forehead? On the dust jacket? On the inside of his fogged-up reading glasses? But I like it.
\nI put down Rebecca Skloot’s first book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” more than once. Ten times, probably. Once to poke the fire. Once to silence a pinging BlackBerry. And eight times to chase my wife and assorted visitors around the house, to tell them I was holding one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time.
\nA thorny and provocative book about cancer, racism, scientific ethics and crippling poverty, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” also floods over you like a narrative dam break, as if someone had managed to distill and purify the more addictive qualities of “Erin Brockovich,” “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and “The Andromeda Strain.” More than 10 years in the making, it feels like the book Ms. Skloot was born to write. It signals the arrival of a raw but quite real talent. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ve got to read the review<\/a> to find out what happened to Henrietta Lacks. Unbelievable! This I’ve gotta know more about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now this sounds like a book I want to read. Excerpt from the NYT review: The best book blurb I’m aware of came from Roy Blount Jr., who said about Pete Dexter’s 1988 novel, “Paris Trout”: “I put it down once to wipe off the sweat.” I’m not sure I know what that means. Was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-morals","category-science"],"yoast_head":"\nThe amazing tale of Henrietta Lacks - Rod Dreher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/02\/the-amazing-tale-of-henrietta-lacks.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The amazing tale of Henrietta Lacks - Rod Dreher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now this sounds like a book I want to read. 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Was…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/02\/the-amazing-tale-of-henrietta-lacks.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rod Dreher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-03T08:19:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rod Dreher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The amazing tale of Henrietta Lacks - Rod Dreher","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/02\/the-amazing-tale-of-henrietta-lacks.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The amazing tale of Henrietta Lacks - Rod Dreher","og_description":"Now this sounds like a book I want to read. 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