A Perfect Red
Amy Butler Greenfield
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060522755

Empire, Espionage, & the Quest for the Color of Desire.

A Perfect Red is the kind of book that makes me drool, & reinfects me with my passion for reading because it has it all: history, art, new words & stories. It gladdens my heart that there are people out there who are writing these stories, & endears me to the editors at this publishing house who saw the value, whether it's a “bestseller” or not.

If you have ever wondered how people colored cloth down the ages, before the modern era of synthetics, then you're in for a royal treat! Amy Butler Greenfield knows from what she writes: she's the descendant of a long line of worthy dyers.

A Perfect Red is a lovely, lovely saga -- reads like a thriller with tons of secret histories, insider insights & a broad view of merchants, explorers, national policies, & major (& occasionally hilarious) blunders in a world we rarely think about -- the empires, secrets & societies of cloth dyers.

Amy Butler Greenfield leaves no bolt of fabric unfurled -- as some of her chapter titles tease:
 • The Dyer's Lot
 • The Color of the Sun
 • An Ancient Art
 • The Emperor's New Dye
 • Trade Secrets
 • Pirates' Prize
 • Through the Looking Glass
 • A Spy in Oaxaca
 • Red and Revolution
 • Scarlet Fever
 • A Lump of Coal

Oh, & it has color plates illustrating the progression of the reds artists down the ages have used. & what was the discovery that caused nations to conquer & spy on each other? A minute bug which lives on one specific plant in one specific spot on earth -- the Dactylopius Coccus -- otherwise known as cochineal.

A Perfect Red is also the story of the word, in many different languages, that came to describe the color of passion, & along the way, you'll learn about how colors & empires are “made”, & how fortunes are lost.

Unique & utterly fascinating.
(09/11/05)

Rebecca