This is Francois Gravel's greatest book to date. It is a charming novel about the rise of a French-Canadian Catholic family in Quebec. In the depression, the Fillion brothers scrape together a living for their mother by taking scrap wood from the docks and selling it door-to-door as firewood. From this humble start, they develop their building first highchairs and selling them, then building and suplying Adirondack chairs to a local furniture store. As a market develops for their work in the years after the Second World War, they open their own furniture store, expand it and, over the course of the next thirty years, become successful merchants. Louis, the middle brother, is the leader of the family. A Good Life is his story, as it is in many ways a parable of the rise of Quebec's Francophone middle class.

Je peux vous résumer toute l’histoire en deux minutes, si vous le voulez : Je l’ai désirée pendant sept ans, je l’ai aimée pendant trois jours et trois nuits, et j’ai ensuite passé sept ans à tenter de l’oublier. Je ne suis pas adepte de numérologie, n’ayez pas peur, et je n’ai aucune envie d’ajouter un nouveau chapitre à la Bible. Je profite simplement de cet anniversaire pour mettre fin au moratoire : si je suis venu ici, c’est pour vous raconter une histoire d’amour qui s’est terminée il y a sept ans, et que nous nous étions juré de ne raconter à personne. Sept ans. Connaissez-vous quelqu’un qui soit capable de garder une histoire secrète aussi longtemps? Et pourtant j’ai réussi, même si cela tenait souvent du supplice. Mais aujourd’hui, je parle. Qui donc est-ce que ça pourrait déranger, sept ans plus tard? Les enfants ont grandi, maintenant, ils sont devenus des adultes.

Adieu, Betty Crocker continues the very well received Fillion Family Saga, which began with A Good Life and was followed by The Extraordinary Garden. In this, the third volume, Benoît investigates the life of his mother's sister, Arlette, who was a domestic presence in the extended family, but who remained a mystery to her nephew. Arlette's story appears simple at the first: she was a traditional stay-at-home mother in the 1960s and 1970s, with a home in the suburbs of Montreal, two children, and a husband who drove buses. She was always prepared for visitors, with Rice Krispies Squares or cookies on her ultra-spotless table. When her husband died in a freak accident, she was left financially well off; she should have been comfortable. But something was wrong—something on which Benoît is not able to put his finger. Through beautiful prose and a glorious translation, the reader discovers the story of Arlette in the voices of her nephew, her son, her daughter, and, finally, herself. A tragedy, the story of Arlette is also a story of grace, courage under pressure.