TEST
How would I describe The Wedding Officer? In a word – beautiful. I so enjoyed this book that I wanted more of the wonderful characters and setting. Anthony Capella does an amazing job of describing wartime Italy, the seductive beauty of the Southern part of the country, the richness of Italian food, the horror of total war, and wraps it all into a truly touching love story.
British Army Captain James Gould is assigned to Naples as the Field Security Officer, otherwise referred to as the Wedding Officer. His duty is to discourage marriage between the British soldiers and the Italian girls, to cut down the number of prostitutes, and to get a handle on the black market of illegal goods. He never imagined how difficult his job would be. Wartime depravation forces the beautiful women of Naples to resort to the only means of livelihood they can find, leading to rampant VD among the British soldiers. The desperate girls want marriage to escape the life of prostitution forced on them and the soldiers are simply overcome by them.
In order to do his job, James follows orders to the letter and he is successful. Now, however, the Neapolitans are unhappy with him and join forces to come up with a solution – to provide him with good food. Good food makes one happy, those who are content want to see others happy. This is where Livia Pertini fits into the picture.
A war widow and a renowned cook in her village on Mount Vesuvius, circumstances in her village force Livia and her family to look for creative methods of survival. One of those methods involves a German tank posing as a tractor. Rumors of the German tank require investigation by James and, as a result, Livia is forced to go back to Naples to answer questions. While there, she, by way of certain Neapolitan citizens, becomes the cook for the Field Security Office. James begins to slowly fall in love, and the lives of the Neapolitans begin to improve. It all goes to prove once again that the way to a man’s heart truly is through his stomach.
All is well until Mount Vesuvius erupts and James and Livia are separated. Situations develop that put Livia into a desperate spot and force her to give up James. Yet, James is determined to get her back, regardless of his position or the danger involved.
There are so many things I enjoyed about this book. The interaction and humor between the main characters and secondary characters is poignant and fitting for a wartime era book. James is young and inexperienced and, through food, Livia gives him hints on how to please her. The tenderness shared between the two truly charming characters makes me tear up in retrospect. In his setting, Capella captures the sights, foods, and smells of Southern Italy so well and so accurately that I want to return and enjoy them all again first hand. The horrors of war are also portrayed, however, he shows how both sides inflicted hardship on the people who simply wanted to survive in a time of total war. It shows that war is not just about soldiers, but that civilian populations are affected as well.
My only quibble with the novel was the changing of the verb tense from time to time. For dramatic effect (I assume), some of the conversations between James and Livia were described in the present tense, whereas other scenes were in the past tense. Every time this would happen, it broke the flow of the book for me. However, this was certainly not enough to detract from the overall story.
I highly recommend The Wedding Officer. I certainly enjoyed it and will enjoy reading it a second time, which I plan to do now. Without a doubt, it is one of the best books that I’ve read in a very long time.
Grade: A
Book Type: Fiction
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 31/05/07
Publication Date: 2007
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.