After two children’s books and an essay, Minister Jean-François Roberge picked up a pen and started collisions, his first adventure novel for adults, the result of work that would have taken him several years.
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“I had the idea in 2015, eight years ago. Then I wrote it in about five years. That’s why I think I took the time to do things,” the French language minister said in the corridors of Parliament on Tuesday.
According to his publisher, Mr. Roberge’s novel is a story “in line with the great classics,” such as the works of Alexandre Dumas, author of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo.”
Abordages tells the story of a 20-year-old young man who finds himself “under a pirate flag, far away in the West Indies, where a series of extraordinary events will transform him into a freedom-loving man who rebels against the colonialist dictates of his time. ” says the summary of the work.
Mr. Roberge met at an independent bookstore in Quebec at the novel’s launch and confided that he was already working on a sequel to that book as well as other projects. “I have a pretty full notebook of characters and plot outlines,” he said with a grin.
A pastor’s workload is particularly heavy and writing a book doesn’t happen overnight. For these reasons, French minister Bruno Le Maire, who was also a writer in his spare time, faced considerable criticism following the publication of his latest novel, American Fugue, earlier this year.
He was particularly criticized for taking too much time for his literary activities while France was in a social crisis.
Minister Roberge assures that he has no difficulty balancing his role as minister and his writing, which he defines as a hobby like any other.
“There are MPs, ministers who ride bikes, others who read, others who do crossword puzzles. “To relax, I write,” he argued.
Furthermore, the elected representatives of the opposition have no reproach to criticize him for his literary activities. “I don’t want to blame him. We will see if the novel is good,” Quebec Solidaire MP Sol Zanetti said Tuesday morning. Mr Zanetti believes Mr Roberge should be judged on his results as minister, “not his schedule”.
“People must be measured by the quality of what they do in their role (…). We must not fall into extreme partisanship,” PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon added in a separate press conference.
Mr. St-Pierre-Plamondon believes it is up to him if Mr. Roberge “unwinds” through writing, although he admits that he himself would not have time to work on writing a book.