Anthony Capella's "The Wedding Officer" Is a Humorous, Scrumptuous Feast of Love, Food, and War

Anthony Capella’s The Wedding Officer is a deliciously romantic novel set in Naples, Italy, during World War II,  as Allied forces and Italian partisans fight for the liberation of Italy from the German occupation. With wit and firm mastery of the local setting and cuisine, Capella tells the story of Livia Pertini, a young Italian widow with amazing cooking skills, and Captain James Gould, a  British Field Security Service officer. (Need I mention that she is pretty and he is handsome?). Captain Gould takes his new assignment of discouraging marriages between British soldiers and Italian women very seriously, at least for a while…Livia Pertini has reasons to hate the Allied soldiers.

Entertaining and realistic cultural and language misunderstandings color their ensuing interactions. Complications in the road to love include work responsibilities, a volcanic eruption and, of course, the war. Beneath the humor and romanticism, there is a realistic look at the impact of war on the local civilian population—particularly the women who have very few ways to make a living in their bombed-out, occupied country, while bearing the responsibility of taking care of their families.

The Wedding Officer begins with,

The day Livia Pertini fell in love for the first time was the day the beauty contest was won by her favorite cow, Pupetta.

For as long as anyone in Fiscino could remember, the annual Feast of the Apricots had incorporated not only a competition to find the most perfect specimen of fruit from among the hundreds of tiny orchards that lined the sides of Monte Vesuvius, but also a contest to determine the loveliest young woman of the region. The former was always presided over by Livia’s father, Nino, since it was generally accepted that as the owner of the village osteria he had a more subtle palate than most, while the latter was judged by Don Bernardo, the priest, since it was thought that as a celibate he would bring a certain objectivity to the proceedings.

Of the two competitions, the beauty contest was usually the more good-natured. This was partly because it was unencumbered by the accusations of fixing, bribing and even stealing of fruit from another man’s orchard that dogged the judging of apricots, but also because [...]

Having recently visited the Naples, Mount Vesuvius, Positano region, this book made me a bit nostalgic. It’s a wonderful read. I read that they might make a movie out of this story—I hope they don’t ruin it.