The Madonna of the St. Denis Bar-BQ is a true account of a parent-child relationship, beginning with the details of the death of the author’s mother, Belle-Moue, and tracing her history back, chapter by chapter, to her birth some decades earlier. It reads like modern-day fiction, scored with factual information. The theme is universal. Authors from different cultural backgrounds have written about the life and death of a parent: Simone de Beauvoir and Michael Ignatieff, among others, have recounted the mother-to-daughter, mother-to-son legacy. The setting for the book is regional: it is the life story of a Québécoise, in la belle province, from 1988 back to 1909. The plot includes a distinct dimension – the veritable influence of religion and government on 20th century French Canada and on women in particular – a subject about which Huguette O’Neil writes with convincing authority. An award-winning author, she is also a journalist and served as Director of Information for the Quebec Council on the Status of Women.