The Last Chronicles of Ballyfungus

by Mary Manning

Thus begins The Last Chronicles of Ballyfungus, which does for the Anglo-Irish gentry what Compton Mackenzie did for Scottish islanders in Whisky Galore and what Evelyn Waugh did for the English aristocracy in Vile Bodies. Read on to learn about the astonishing population of this astonishing town: the poet "Tott" (actually the Earl of Tottingham) and his artsy aunt, Lady de Bracey, a motor-scooter-riding gossip who cleans for everybody, a totally depressed student of Beckett, a small, tax-sheltered group of intelligentsia whose sexual habits are somewhat exotic, the bridge-playing "fearsome foursome," Lady Mabel Vigors, her sister Albinia, Dr. Josh Browne and General Artie Ironside. And one dyed-in-the-doubleknits villain, Johnny Fallon, a real estate parvenu who sees developments everywhere--especially in Balooly Woods, Ballyfungus' ancient and beloved forest. When Fallon's schemes begin to materialize, the denizens of Ballyfungus take (eccentric) action, from confrontations at a poetry festival, to Gandhi-esque lie-ins before Fallon's bulldozers, to a congenial murder that sports the happiest outcome of any homicide in literature. There is no way to read this book without laughing out loud over and over again.

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. ^^

Mary Manning Howe Adams, born Mary Manning.

Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Mary Manning was an Irish novelist, playwright and film critic, who moved to the US as an adult.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an odd one. There were some funny moments, but they didn't really cohere. I found an earlier, short version published in the Atlantic in 1974, which was in first person and seemed more enjoyable, which made me wonder what she talked about with her editor to turn it into a novel.