Ian Frazier has been a columnist for the New Yorker magazine among other jobs. He is well traveled and is has a particular interest in Russia, namely Siberia, as well as Native Americans of the west. The Cursing Mommy's Book of Days is based on his New Yorker column. If it were not for him speaking at the Monday nights Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, this reader would not have, most likely, chosen the book to read.
Though nameless, the Cursing Mommy, chronicles a hellacious year in her life and the life of her family: a pretty much worthless husband, who is more interested is collecting his capacitors; son Kyle who breaks out in hives when he is stressed out by going to school; son Trevor who is a bad seed with the habit of starting fires among other "prankish" behaviour; and her father, resident in a nursing home who just refuses to die. Impacting her life from outside the family are her husband's lecherous boss, her best friend who runs away with a poet leaving a husband and children behind, Trevor's therapist, her book club, and the school that seems to have been overtaken by a cult.
Frazier captures the day-to-day frustrations of a wife and mother, albeit one who is also struggling with pill and alcohol addiction. As the Cursing Mommy recounts the events of her days, the reader can laugh and at the same time empathize with her. At some point every woman has had her thoughts. She offers Martha Stewart style hints for cooking and cleaning that pretty much end in disaster - a common thread throughout the book as is her frustration at those events that causes a proliferation of the F... word on the pages. If it is not cursing, then it is invoking the horrendous actions of the Bush/Cheney administration that is really to be blamed for all dire incidents.
There were times when I was really enjoying Cursing Mommy, but then the amount of profanity really turned me off. I was annoyed that I had to read through all the F-bombs to get to the diary. When we heard Mr. Frazier lecture, he was even reticent about referring to the book because of all the expletives. His talk on Siberia, however, was most interesting and offered some quite hilarious commentary.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ranks as one of the most fascinating books of nonfiction that I have ever read. It was one of those books that once started, you did not want to put down. Oh, would life not get in the way of reading.
Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 in Roanoke, VA. When her mother died shortly after the birth of her 10th child, Henrietta was sent to Clover, VA to live with her grandfather. She grew up as a tobacco farmer's child and continued that way of life into her adulthood. She married David Lacks, her cousin in 1941. The couple relocated to Sparrows Point, MD where David worked in the Bethlehem Steel plant. In 1951, Henrietta felt a lump inside her and felt that something was just not right. She asked a cousin who assumed, correctly actually, that Henrietta was pregnant. However, after that birth, her fifth child, she went to the doctor at Johns Hopkins hospital. It was the only hospital in the area that would treat a black woman. Upon examination, it was discovered that she had cervical cancer. Henrietta lost her battle with cancer that year after some aggressive radiation treatment. In the course of the treatment part of the tumor was removed along with healthy cells of the cervix. It is from the harvesting of these cells, that Henrietta's story becomes an incredible saga.
The cells were given to Dr. George Gey from a scientist from the University of Pittsburgh who was working at the tissue lab at JH. Until Scientists had been trying to grow cancerous cells for research, but they always died outside the body. Until - Henrietta Lacks. Her cells had the ability to reproduce in petrie dishes at an astonishing rate. And they have been reproducing for the last 60 years. Known as HeLa cells, they have been crucial to scientific research ever since. In the early days of research, they were crucial to the discovery and production of the Salk polio vaccine.
Skloot covers the scientific background of the cell research, generally on a layman's level. I did feel lost, tho, at some points during the book, but I am not a scientifically minded person. She covers the ethical and legal aspects of harvesting and selling a person's tissue and cells. But the strength of the book is in Rebecca Skloot's methodology and her perseverance in getting to the bottom of the story and making it understandable to Lacks' children and grandchildren. She became a very good friend and confidant of Deborah Lacks, the fourth child. This aspect of the book created a very poignant and humanitarian narrative. The children struggle with what has happened to their mother and have powerful and strong reactions to those who want to tell Henrietta's story. I am glad that Rebecca Skloot was able to gain that trust and put it to paper for generations to come. This is a captivating and important read.
