Minister Without Portfolio a 'beautiful, compelling' story

Morning North5:33Canada Reads - Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter - local analysis

We invited five people from the Greater Sudbury Public Library to read one of the books in this year's Canada Reads competition. Mandy Lynn Lamarche, a library branch assistant, shared her thoughts on the book Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter.

Canada Reads 2016 is all about starting over. All five books in this annual CBC book contest centre on themes of transformation and second chances; stories about people choosing — or being forced to choose — a dramatically different course in life.

Mandy Lynn Lamarche, a branch assistant at Greater Sudbury's Mackenzie Library, read the book Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter, and provides this reflection:

"I chose this book to read because it is beautifully written, and it is a compelling story. I began reading this novel without knowing if I would be able to relate to it.

The protagonist is a white man from Newfoundland who decides to get over a broken heart by taking a new job in Afghanistan, as an army-affiliated contractor. While there, he loses his friend in a roadside incursion. When he returns home, riddled with guilt, he begins to renovate his friend's family home.

At the surface, the closest thing I could relate to was that we are both Canadian. The more I read the more I realized that we had more in common than I thought.

Everyone can relate to this year's theme of starting over. We have all had our hearts broken, started new jobs, lost someone close to us, and fallen in love again.

This is exactly the experience of the protagonist.  Often these significant moments are defined as before or after — but it is in between the before and after where you make a choice to start over."