King of Cane Garden

After leaving rural Barbados in his teens, Irvine Weekes began an odyssey of adventurous education and employment perhaps unmatched by West Indians of the twentieth century. Armed with indefatigable optimism and faith in his survival instincts, he would serve variously as a child teacher, policeman, psychiatric nurse trainee, bond portfolio manager, MBA financial executive, corporate head of several major Caribbean brands, livestock magnate, real estate agent, taxi entrepreneur, waiter, tow-truck manager and financial adviser, among other pursuits. A man of uncommon wit, inventiveness and energy, Weekes brings to life the anti-colonial struggles waged for Caribbean nationhood, the formation of the Canadian social-democratic identity and his role at ringside (sometimes in the ring) with many of the key characters in each drama. Equal parts love story, career adventure and purpose-seeking travelogue, The King of Cane Garden is an unvarnished and raw yet thoughtful account of the West Indian experience abroad, the randomness of career achievement, the transcendent nature of lifelong learning and the universality of our chances at redemption.