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24th out of 26 books
—
6 voters
Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World
For almost five millennia, in every culture and in every major religion, indigo-a blue pigment obtained from the small green leaf of a parasitic shrub through a complex process that even scientists still regard as mysterious-has been at the center of turbulent human encounters.
Indigo is the story of this precious dye and its ancient heritage: its relationship to slavery
Hardcover, 235 pages
Published
May 24th 2011
by Bloomsbury USA
(first published January 1st 2011)
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Never judge a book by it's cover. This book has an awesome cover and title . . . the contents . . .
I kept hoping it was going to get better. But it didn't.
The author is not very self aware. As an adopted child of mixed race she obsesses about a cultural heritage she wishes she was a part of. Then an affair with a college professor sends her on a quest for indigo. And she gets a Fullbright Scholarship to do so. And just so you don't forget that she has a Fullbright she mentions it over and over.
T...more
I kept hoping it was going to get better. But it didn't.
The author is not very self aware. As an adopted child of mixed race she obsesses about a cultural heritage she wishes she was a part of. Then an affair with a college professor sends her on a quest for indigo. And she gets a Fullbright Scholarship to do so. And just so you don't forget that she has a Fullbright she mentions it over and over.
T...more
i really wanted to love this book as i have been seeking out anything on color and pigment history after reading Victoria Finlay's fantastic book "Color" Color: A Natural History of the Palette.
it's a lovely piece of travel writing about a woman's journey through Africa trying to find indigo dyed fabric as a sometimes embarrassing obsession. you learn her family history, her past relationships, the friends she makes and many, many pages of her gazing longingly at beautiful cloth from a distanc...more
it's a lovely piece of travel writing about a woman's journey through Africa trying to find indigo dyed fabric as a sometimes embarrassing obsession. you learn her family history, her past relationships, the friends she makes and many, many pages of her gazing longingly at beautiful cloth from a distanc...more
Jul 14, 2012
Chels Patterson
marked it as to-read
I started with the being few pages and questioned this book. Then I skipped around the chapters, scanning a few pages, to see if my theories were correct. This book is a biography!!!! Not HISTORY book! I actually looked to see what it was indicated as by the publisher.
In the first few pages she mentioned about being a prof of creative writing, right then it was an oh no, and a no shit moment combined.
I really don't care that she feel in love with New Orleans or that she went out to buy a small...more
In the first few pages she mentioned about being a prof of creative writing, right then it was an oh no, and a no shit moment combined.
I really don't care that she feel in love with New Orleans or that she went out to buy a small...more
The description of this book makes it sound fascinating. I have always loved color and fabric, and when I worked a a fabric store, I would run my hands across the bolts just for the sheer pleasure of touching them. Clearly, McKinley has the same fascination with fabric, added to an obsession with indigo in particular. But this book was less about indigo and more about her own personal journey in life. Unfortunately, her obsession and need to own pieces of indigo textiles, even to the point of be...more
This is a most interesting book on what I believe is a little known plant but one that has a huge impact on the global psyche. I know it has on mine - my home is full of indigo and I had no idea that my obsession with the color, like the authors, goes back thousands of years.
You will learn that the color of Levis was originally brough to us by indigofera, a plant that grows all over the world but the best sources are India and West Africa. Did you know that Betsy Ross' first flag was created wit...more
You will learn that the color of Levis was originally brough to us by indigofera, a plant that grows all over the world but the best sources are India and West Africa. Did you know that Betsy Ross' first flag was created wit...more
This book is basically a memoir of the author's pursuit to discover indigo, a deep blue dye made in the traditional African manner. She goes to Africa in pursuit of this. Throughout the book and her stories in Africa, the author weaves in information about the history of indigo and its effects on African culture, economy, etc. It was interesting to learn about how important cloth is to African culture. However, the history, etc of indigo is not very deeply explored, I thought. Since it is inters...more
So, like a lot of other reviewers here, I was pretty disappointed. First, yes, while the history of indigo would be extremely interesting, this is more memoir than history or sociology. And that's fine. The problem is that it's a memoir of Ms. McKinley, and I don't want to read her memoir. At all.
This is the first book for which I've begun keeping a "Fulbright count." What is it? Ah. Glad you asked. It's a count of the number of times Ms. McKinley refers to her Fulbright, to how great it is to h...more
This is the first book for which I've begun keeping a "Fulbright count." What is it? Ah. Glad you asked. It's a count of the number of times Ms. McKinley refers to her Fulbright, to how great it is to h...more
I found the anticipation at reading what I thought would be an incredible story much more exciting than the actual book. It it not introduced by any review I read as a memoir -- yet it is simply that. In the same vein as Eat, Pray and Love, which travel was also paid by in this case a Fellowship (which the author constantly informes us -- as if we had forgotten the other dozen times), and I didn't really like that book either.
I expected this to be a story about INDIGO -- but it was only a minor...more
I expected this to be a story about INDIGO -- but it was only a minor...more
"Indigo" is subtitled, "In Search of the Color that Seduced the World," and it is that, but it's also the author's search for identity, and spiritual mooring. The trouble with these kinds of search memoirs is that the search is often more compelling to the author than the reader. Such is the case, for me, with this book. Yes, the search is a good thing, in and of itself, but for some reason the author, Catherine McKinley never seemed to make the stakes high enough to get me emotionally involved...more
I had a hard time understanding this author. She writes about her time on a fellowship, but that she didn't get to go where she wanted to learn about indigo because of political instability. So she instead goes to a safer place. It is not ever clear what she is looking for, except maybe to actually get cloth. She connects with the top textile woman and visits factories, and scoffs at them. She befriends a local small business woman and supports her throughthe death of her husband while making co...more
I slogged through half of this book because I am interested in indigo and its African roots. But though the book contains a fair amount of information, it's organization makes it very hard to understand the information in a coherent way. The author has a Fulbright Fellowship to visit west Africa to study indigo. The story is really a memoir of her project. We meet interesting people, mostly west African, are told rambling anecdotes about customs and culture that tangentially touch on indigo. It...more
I originally found this book when looking for images of the color indigo. I HAD to read it. I am obsessed with the color, and the title drew me.
The novel is so well written; a combination of biography, history textbook, and living map of Africa.
I have never felt called to visit Africa, but I would love to being to experience even a portion of what Catherine McKinley did.
The novel is so well written; a combination of biography, history textbook, and living map of Africa.
I have never felt called to visit Africa, but I would love to being to experience even a portion of what Catherine McKinley did.
I read about 160 of the 235 pages and quit in disgust. There are little things in here I liked, but mostly this book is kind of awful. Catherine McKinley is far too impressed with herself. Yes, a Fulbright scholarship is impressive, but don't keep saying it over and over again.
Worse, my own hunger to learn about indigo is far from satisfied. This book is not - as advertised - about indigo at all. It's just another spiritual memoir in a foreign country. Smart, pretty girl goes searching for some...more
Worse, my own hunger to learn about indigo is far from satisfied. This book is not - as advertised - about indigo at all. It's just another spiritual memoir in a foreign country. Smart, pretty girl goes searching for some...more
Jun 24, 2011
Annah
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
my friends
Recommended to Annah by:
Goodreads
This was a fascinating story, told in a travelogue style of writing. I appreciated the history of the people involved in the indigo trade, the woven histories of slavery, commerce, and art. Additionally, the idea that there is a culture that values new technologies in Africa was an idea that had never occurred to me. It makes me wonder what other technologies around the world are dying out in favor of the new.
The stories of the author's travels in Africa as she searches for clues and for actual...more
The stories of the author's travels in Africa as she searches for clues and for actual...more
While this book was interesting to read, it was much more about the author's personal quest, which, while on the surface is for the story of indigo, is actually a quest for understanding and reconciliation with her mixed heritage. So the book is a lot about her stay in West Africa, where she comes to grips with the history of slavery. Indigo is tied inextricably with this trade, but its origins lie not in Africa, but in India, a fact that McKinley all but ignores. A compelling read, but ultimate...more
I was very interested in reading Indigo by Catherine McKinley. However, I read to page 4, second paragraph and discovered a huge error--namely:
"The war (she's referring to the Revolutionary War) would mark the beginning of the weakening of American indigo profits, also hastened by the invention of the cotton gin in 1974." The cotton gin was invented in 1794. Didn't anyone proof this book?
On page 3, she mentions Gandhi joining the Indigo Revolt of 1859 as his first civil action, but he wasn't bor...more
"The war (she's referring to the Revolutionary War) would mark the beginning of the weakening of American indigo profits, also hastened by the invention of the cotton gin in 1974." The cotton gin was invented in 1794. Didn't anyone proof this book?
On page 3, she mentions Gandhi joining the Indigo Revolt of 1859 as his first civil action, but he wasn't bor...more
I had trouble connecting with the author's story (part memoir of her obsession with indigo dye and cloth, and part history of the importance of indigo in West African trade and culture). McKinley's story was disjointed.
I was most interested in the photos of the indigo cloth she had purchased in her journey, in the patterns. As an artist, it has inspired me to find a way to incorporate indigo into some of my own work. It is an arresting color, and that was what "seduced" me to read the book. By...more
I was most interested in the photos of the indigo cloth she had purchased in her journey, in the patterns. As an artist, it has inspired me to find a way to incorporate indigo into some of my own work. It is an arresting color, and that was what "seduced" me to read the book. By...more
There were some interesting sections describing Katherine McKinley's experiences in Ghana and ivory Coast and west Africa. However she was ridiculously obsessed with indigo - to the degree that she ignored human relations and civil unrest. Book was choppy with her moving from country to country with no narrative arc and no continuity. I would not recommend it. I was also not sympathetic to her personal search as an adoptee in a wasp family with birth parents of Jewish trader and African artist b...more
**I won this book through Good Reads First Reads**
To begin with, I was really excited that I won this book. It sounded fascinating! I feel like I was misled. I was under the impression that I would be learning about indigo, not about some lady's adventure in Africa.
This book read like a very bad memoir. As someone that knows nothing about African geography, I was completely lost with all of the references to the countries, regions and villages. A map would have improved this experience some.
Most...more
To begin with, I was really excited that I won this book. It sounded fascinating! I feel like I was misled. I was under the impression that I would be learning about indigo, not about some lady's adventure in Africa.
This book read like a very bad memoir. As someone that knows nothing about African geography, I was completely lost with all of the references to the countries, regions and villages. A map would have improved this experience some.
Most...more
Jul 10, 2011
Emily Leathers
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
no one
Recommended to Emily by:
goodreads
Shelves:
sfpl
Overall quite interesting, though this is far more of a travelogue than the description on GoodReads made it out to be. I was hoping for something more along the lines of 'Salt', and was quickly disappointed by the only interspersed history, most of it without enough context for me to really understand it. I've seen a couple of other reviews mention GoodReads and other places suggesting it as book group book - I would probably suggest against that unless a book about one person's experience of a...more
McKinley, the African and Jewish adopted daughter of two WASP New England botany professors, became fascinated with indigo through an affair with a Nigerian professor and classes in Women's Studies, all of which led to a Fulbright to Nigeria, which, because of political unrest, turned into a Fulbright to Ghana. In search of both the plant and the traditional cloth dyed and curated by generations of women, she haunts the marketplaces of Accra, travels illegally to Nigeria, Niger and the Ivory Coa...more
Mostly quite interesting, though slow in spots. Not that I was expecting excitement, exactly--it's a book about dyestuffs, after all. It's as much about the cultures of Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and other parts of West Africa, as it is about indigo itself. The author's quest took her through some pretty scary events.
I found the color plates, while lovely to look at, to be oddly arranged. They are in a group at the center of the book, which isn't a problem, but they don't seem to be in a...more
I found the color plates, while lovely to look at, to be oddly arranged. They are in a group at the center of the book, which isn't a problem, but they don't seem to be in a...more
Now that I have read the other reviews, I am so relieved to know that I'm not the only person who did not enjoy this book....at all. I was encouraged by the beautiful introduction (a really lovely piece of writing), but was left completely disappointed by the following chapters. As much as it pains me to say, especially after making it to page 100, I simply cannot finish it.
As others have mentioned, the dialogue is tiresome-o!
I would not recommend this book.
As others have mentioned, the dialogue is tiresome-o!
I would not recommend this book.
Awful. I hope this is the only bad book I read this year. I was expecting a readable memoir with history of the indigo plant and the dying process and the trade of indigo cloth. I don't know why this book was even published. Some book editor should be fired. However, the person responsible for the cover art should be commended, as the cover is what caught my eye in the first place. This book was a terrific waste of book-money and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Magical in its story and the way it is written. The book says it best:
"Life and death have exquisite symmetry. The symmetry is held in the color blue."
"We are born, we face mortality. what are the mysteries and yearnings in between? Cloth is the portage, the vehicle for the spirit on the irreversible, unsettling march from birth to the grave."
"The most costly cloth was a heavy shawl called a Dissa with long, beautiful fringe; it was dyed the blue-black shade called Lomassa, or 'Divine Sky', the...more
"Life and death have exquisite symmetry. The symmetry is held in the color blue."
"We are born, we face mortality. what are the mysteries and yearnings in between? Cloth is the portage, the vehicle for the spirit on the irreversible, unsettling march from birth to the grave."
"The most costly cloth was a heavy shawl called a Dissa with long, beautiful fringe; it was dyed the blue-black shade called Lomassa, or 'Divine Sky', the...more
This was an Accra Book Club read, and had come highly recommended - not just by fellow members but others (though one was the author's publisher, so I guess she was somewhat biased!). I enjoyed it, though more for the insights into the author's obsession with indigo cloth and descriptions of some of the key people she meets on her journey, than for the information about indigo and its dyeing and the cloth that was produced.
I kind of struggled with the rating--this was a fascinating book in some ways, but also very much not the book I was expecting. I would have liked having more history, and the latter half of the book felt rushed in comparison with the opening. Even so, McKinley's prose is often lyrical, and I learned quite a bit about indigo.
This was an interesting memoir of the author;s journey in search for indigo in Africa which really a journey of self discovery. Found that I was getting bogged down in parts of the book. Over all was worth reading if you're interested in different cultures, and in memoir.
From Library Journal's Pre-Pub Alert: "Excellent for books clubs, this work should appeal to anyone who enjoys looking at history through a single, brilliantly lit window, as with Mark Kurlansky's many single-subject books and Giles Milton's Nathaniel's Nutmeg."
Fascinating history of a world-changing dye. An addition to the undernarrated role of textiles--and women--to history. But McKinley's writing sometimes left me confused. This is also her search for identity and she is less successful in conveying that.
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Jan 07, 2013 11:20am