Book Review: Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Harper Collins via Edelweissplus, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.

Set in the early 1990s, the long-awaited tenth novel in Armistead Maupin’s beloved and enduring Tales of the City series follows the adventures of Mona Ramsey, now the widowed Lady of a glorious old manor in Britain’s golden Cotswolds, and her fabulous adopted son Wilfred, as they come to the aid of an American visitor with a troubling secret.

“Maupin is one of America’s finest storytellers.”—Neil Gaiman

Synopsis:

When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa—allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfill his wildest dreams—she never imagined she would, by age 48, be the sole owner of Easley House, Teddy’s grand, romantic country manor in the UK. She also didn't imagine that she’d need to open the manor’s doors to paying guests to afford the electric bill and repair the leaking roof. Yet somehow she and her young friend Wilfred--whom guests assume is serving as Easley’s charming-but-clumsy butler--and the loopy old gardener Mr. Hargis, are making it work.

 This delicate equilibrium is upended when Americans Rhonda and Ernie Blaylock arrive for a weekend vacation at Easley, and Wilfred stumbles onto their terrible secret. Now, instead of being able to focus on the imminent arrival of her old friend Michael Tolliver and beloved parent Anna Madrigal, Mona will need to focus all of her considerable charm, willpower, and wiles—and the help of Wilfred and Mona’s girlfriend Poppy, the town’s postmistress and local calligraphy whiz—to set things right before the Midsummer ceremony when the whole town will descend on Easley’s historic grounds.

Review:

I lived in San Francisco at the end of the Tales of the City series, so it was fun to go hunt out locations and see where the scenes in the book played out. As I read those books, they helped the city to come more alive for me, and to help me better to understand it. This book takes us back in time, so we can see what happened to Mona when she fled San Francisco and her mother, Anna. Here among the hallowed grounds of a country estate in England, we can see what helped to make Mona, well Mona..LOL And we also see how things started with Mouse (Michael) and her, and how the braided story began. It's no surprise Mona takes in people and rescues them, as it is what her mother does in San Francisco.It's fun to see how much of Anna is in Mona, and vice versa. An enjoyable read for those who love the Tales books, it's also a bit like opening the family scrapbook, and going back in time.

About the Author:

Armistead Maupin is the author of the Tales of the City series, which includes Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn, and The Days of Anna Madrigal. His other books include the memoir Logical Family and the novels Maybe the Moon and The Night Listener. Maupin was the 2012 recipient of the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award. He lives in London with his husband, Christopher Turner.