Felicity's Fool

Bernard Dansereau has always been preoccupied by the physical nature of happiness. He was only five years old when he first attempted to get to the heart - or the head - of the matter, first by asking questions, later by dissecting brains, both animal and human, as he searched for the special cells he was sure would be found in the cognitive organ of the blissful. With humour and irony and a great deal of tenderness, Francis Gravel describes Bernard's quest, which is set against the background of the early years of St. Jean de Dieu, a Montreal psychiatric hospital. In doing so, he also pays affectionate tribute to the courageous work of a tiny, indomitable nun, Sister Therese-de-Jesus, the real-life founder of the hospital.