His novels, from the start, were quintessentially Canadian, among the first to imaginatively contemplate the new ideal of multiculturalism. He described the hyphenated reality of individuals caught between cultures in ways that resonated with millions of immigrant readers. “ne can no longer deprecate this language by calling it a dialect.”Ĭlarke’s early works including The Survivors of the Crossing (1964), Amongst Thistles and Thorns (1965) and the novels that comprise his Toronto trilogy: The Meeting Point (1972), Storm of Fortune (1973), and The Bigger Light (1975) offered a rare reflection of black Canadian lives. “Vernacular is the lingua-franca of Barbados,” he told me in 2003. Clarke believed that language-specifically, vernacular-was the most significant aspect of his narratives. Yet he manages to evoke their wit and resilience through an exuberant Bajan language. His characters battle the outer challenges of colonialism, racism, and economic hardship and the inner challenges of colonial mentality and racial shame.
Clarke’s extensive oeuvre-nearly a dozen novels, several story collections, as well as memoirs and poems-feature Bajans at home or West Indians in Canada. It brought him the Scotiabank Giller Prize and marked the apex of a literary career that spanned more than fifty years. His most famous book, The Polished Hoe(2002), was the story of the sexual exploitation of an island woman.
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