Book Review: Indigo

Indigo:  In Search of the Colo[u]r that Seduced the World

Author:  Catherine E. McKinley

ISBN:  978-1-60819-505-3  

Publisher:  Bloomsbury, 2011

US price:  $27.00 (Hardcopy)

Okay, there are some things that really I didn't like about this book and then there were things that I did.

First, I don't know how anyone can say that this has anything to do with "history" unless they are talking about McKinley's personal history.  And in that case we should just call this book what it really is, McKinley's autobiographical journey.

And historically, there are some questionable references in this book that illustrates what appears to be poor research or bad editing. I'm not quite sure.  

It is said that no indigo box was dispatched to England without being smeared in human blood, and resistance to that tyranny sparked a two-year peasant revolt -- the Indigo Revolt of 1859 -- that Gandhi joined as his first civil action.  

Okay, Gandhi was not even born when the Indigo Revolt of 1859 occurred.  Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869.  Could McKinley be referring to the Indigo Rebellion that happened in the next century?  All I do know is that from the early pages of this book I was distracted by words that didn't make sense.  

By the eve of the American Revolution, when cubes of indigo replaced paper currency, South Carolina planter were exporting 1.1 million pounds of indigo to Europe -- nearly $30 million today.  

The war would mark the beginning of the weakening of American indigo profits, also hastened by the invention of the cotton gin in 1974.  

Sigh.  Yup, 1974 is found in the pages of my book.  Needless to say, any enthusiasm that I initially had when I first picked up this book diminished quite quickly. Until I reached page forty-one,

When you have a cloth box, it shows you are mature.  Every respectable woman has cloth.  Plenty of cloth!  For Ghana women, it is the most important thing after having children.  Cloth is more than our bank accounts and our insurance.  Even if you don't own land, you own cloth.  You could say it is like a European lady's silverware!  The price of fine cloth never decreases, while our money, its value keeps on changing.  If you have three hundred pieces of good cloth, like a real madame, well then you have something!  

The story of another woman's fabric stash offered a reason to continue.  But I wasn't rewarded in the following pages.  The beautiful indigo book cover drew me into a book I really wanted to enjoy but the pages within didn't offer the same enticement or deliver a satisfying read.  I could have spent my time sewing or at least admiring my own cloth box(es).  

Happy Sewing!