Over at Maclean’s, national affairs correspondent Charlie Gillis is performing a public service of sorts by reading Julie Couillard’s tell-all memoir My Story, which hits stores today, and live-blogging his impressions.

The verdict so far (Gillis is about halfway through): It’s a surprisingly entertaining read and even at times heartfelt. The juiciest bits are about Couillard’s affair with her biker boyfriend Gilles, though Gillis has little patience for her disingenuousness about his criminal activities.

So imagine poor Julie’s surprise when he lets on that [Gilles] did time for robbery when he was 19. She’s glossing, here, to put it mildly. He never sold drugs, never had [a] firearm, but after a while she figured out Gilles was a moneylender.

A moneylender? Er no. Fannie and Freddie are moneylenders. Gilles was a loanshark.

As this is being posted, Gillis is embarking on day two of his reading. Here at Quillblog, we’re highly anticipating the chapters about Couillard’s ill-fated affair with Maxime Bernier.