Synopses & Reviews
In the sumptuous tradition of Chocolat and Captain Cornell's Mandolin, and already optioned for a major motion picture, comes a magical tale of romantic passion, culinary delight and Italy.
Captain James Gould arrives in wartime Naples assigned to discourage marriages between British soldiers and their gorgeous Italian girlfriends. But the innocent young officer is soon distracted by an intoxicating young widow who knows her way around a kitchen...Livia Pertini is creating feasts that stun the senses with their succulence ruby-colored San Marzana tomatoes, glistening anchovies, and delectable new potatoes encrusted with the black volcanic earth of of Campania and James is about to learn that his heart may rank higher than his orders. For romance can be born of the sweet and spicy passions of food and love and time spent in the kitchen can be as joyful and exciting as the banquet of life itself!
Review
"Capella's vividly sensuous command of the arts of both food and romance will attract readers." Booklist
Review
"Capella again mingles 'amore' with 'alimenti' in this tale of a British officer who develops an appetite for all things Italian." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Anthony Capella is an author, self-proclaimed Italophile, and lover of all things culinary. He lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and three children. His first novel, The Food of Love, was a Richard and Judy pick, and is being made into a film by DiNovi Pictures.
Reading Group Guide
In the luscious tradition of
Chocolat and
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, acclaimed novelist Anthony Capella brings us a tale of war-torn Europe—and the sumptuous cuisine that sparked renewed hope, as well as an unexpected romance, for a young Italian widow and a British Army captain.
Livia Pertini is renowned for her cooking at a local osteria and has just settled into married life when the atrocities of World War II destroy the only sense of home she has ever known. Receiving the harrowing news that her husband has been killed in action, the beautiful culinary master wonders how she will survive.
Captain James Gould arrives in Naples amid rubble and starvation, determined to stamp out the flourishing black market and restore order to a land whose language he speaks fluently but whose culture he naively misunderstands. In a time and place marked by deprivation, he hires Livia as a cook—and soon discovers the succulence of her magnificent dishes, with ingredients procured as if by magic. He soon hungers not only for her feasts but also for her love. But one of his duties is to serve as the “wedding officer,” the man assigned to deny permission for marriage to British soldiers and their sultry Italian girlfriends. His seduction by Livia goes against everything he believes in, yet he is about to learn that passion is also the most thrilling hunger to feed.
The questions and discussion topics that follow are intended to enhance your reading of Anthony Cappella’s The Wedding Officer. We hope they will enrich your experience of this unique and delectable novel.
1. What aspects of Livia’s personality are illustrated in the novel’s opening scenes? What parts of her identity fade after Enzo leaves, and what aspects are intensified when she is on her own?
2. Discuss the different types of hunger described in The Wedding Officer. Which ones are the most powerful—the hunger for companionship, food, or sex? In what way do James’s and Livia’s appetites change throughout the novel?
3. Why did James’s superiors believe it was necessary to regulate the marriages between servicemen and their Italian girlfriends? What did the interview questions indicate about the gulf between reality and pretense during this episode in history?
4. Chapter twenty-one ends with Livia feeling furious because of James’s apparent lack of interest. What do their different approaches to courtship say about their cultures?
5. Initially, James says that he doesn’t have much authority. What power does he really have? What does his experience indicate about a person’s ability to make change, regardless of what the official limitations are?
6. Discuss the issue of language as it plays out in the novel. How does it help and hinder the characters to have limitations in their ability to communicate? In what ways is food a universal language? What did James’s “food language,” which forbade things like garlic and emphasized potatoes over pasta, say about his personality?
7. Livia highlights the sensual pleasures of food when she serves the officers snails and peas, all still in their shells. What other ways does she have of using food to seduce?
8. How familiar were you with Italy’s experience with the war, and the rise of Mussolini? What aspects of history and culture in The Wedding Officer surprised you?
9. ow did the economics of war become a sort of weapon as well? Was James right to try to eliminate the black market? How does corruption become defined under these circumstances? Beyond the issue of nutrition, what does it do to a community to deprive them of their national cuisine?
10. In chapter thirty, James is exasperated to discover that Livia doesn’t measure any of her ingredients. What turning points does this scene capture? What do they eventually teach each other about intuition and rules?
11. Livia deeply resents the Allies. What does her story demonstrate about the role of liberators in a foreign land?
12. Would you have given in to Alberto’s demands if you had been in Livia’s position? Was the survival of her family always the top priority in her life?
13. Livia tells James she is adamant in her support of communism. What aspects of history are captured in this conversation? What makes communism so appealing to her? What is her understanding of its promise?
1. What aspects of Livias personality are illustrated in the novels opening scenes? What parts of her identity fade after Enzo leaves, and what aspects are intensified when she is on her own?
2. Discuss the different types of hunger described in The Wedding Officer. Which ones are the most powerfulthe hunger for companionship, food, or sex? In what way do Jamess and Livias appetites change throughout the novel?
3. Why did Jamess superiors believe it was necessary to regulate the marriages between servicemen and their Italian girlfriends? What did the interview questions indicate about the gulf between reality and pretense during this episode in history?
4. Chapter twenty-one ends with Livia feeling furious because of Jamess apparent lack of interest. What do their different approaches to courtship say about their cultures?
5. Initially, James says that he doesnt have much authority. What power does he really have? What does his experience indicate about a persons ability to make change, regardless of what the official limitations are?
6. Discuss the issue of language as it plays out in the novel. How does it help and hinder the characters to have limitations in their ability to communicate? In what ways is food a universal language? What did Jamess “food language,” which forbade things like garlic and emphasized potatoes over pasta, say about his personality?
7. Livia highlights the sensual pleasures of food when she serves the officers snails and peas, all still in their shells. What other ways does she have of using food to seduce?
8. How familiar were you with Italys experience with the war, and the rise of Mussolini? What aspects of history and culture in The Wedding Officer surprised you?
9. ow did the economics of war become a sort of weapon as well? Was James right to try to eliminate the black market? How does corruption become defined under these circumstances? Beyond the issue of nutrition, what does it do to a community to deprive them of their national cuisine?
10. In chapter thirty, James is exasperated to discover that Livia doesnt measure any of her ingredients. What turning points does this scene capture? What do they eventually teach each other about intuition and rules?
11. Livia deeply resents the Allies. What does her story demonstrate about the role of liberators in a foreign land?
12. Would you have given in to Albertos demands if you had been in Livias position? Was the survival of her family always the top priority in her life?
13. Livia tells James she is adamant in her support of communism. What aspects of history are captured in this conversation? What makes communism so appealing to her? What is her understanding of its promise?
Author Q&A
A Q&A with author Anthony Capella on his novel,
The Wedding OfficerCan you name the first book you read that inspired you in some special way? Why?
Marcella Hazan’s vast cookbook The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. It looks like a cookbook—and it is, a brilliant one—but really it’s a guide to the recipes for life. ‘The taste [these dishes] have been devised to achieve wants not to astonish but to reassure. It issues from the cultural memory, the enduring world of Italian cooks, each generation setting a place at table where the next one will feel at ease and at home.’ ‘…It is a pattern of cooking that can accommodate improvisation and fresh intuitions each time it is taken in hand, as long as it continues to be a pattern we can recognise; as long as its evolving forms comfort us with that essential attribute of the civilised life, familiarity.’ Wow. Who writes recipes like that any more?
Many writing experts advise “write about what you know.” Do you agree with this? And what practical advice would you give an aspiring author?
No, I think this is outdated. These days, with the internet and online bookstores, we can all of us access knowledge very quickly—certainly fast enough that you can easily become expert about the period or milieu in which your book is set. The point is that you have to really want to acquire that knowledge. So I would say, write about what you love. And if you know so little about it that the process of learning what you need to know will excite and inspire you, then so much the better—you’ll excite and inspire your readers.
Which came first: the characters, or the storyline?
In my case, I was visiting Naples with a bunch of food-loving friends. I happened to take along Norman Lewis’s wartime memoir, Naples ’44. He was there during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1944 as an intelligence officer —and one of his tasks was to prevent Allied soldiers from marrying their beautiful Italian girlfriends: the high command had decided there were so many of these relationships it was getting out of hand. I immediately thought it was a delicious idea for a novel. I then started to think about a man doing that job who fell in love with an Italian woman himself…. The character of Livia, who is the intelligence officer’s cook, followed on from that. Like so many ideas, it was a case of two thoughts colliding: the idea of the wedding officer, and then the way that Italian food might change his attitudes to his job.
Can you tell us about the book you are working on now?
I’ve just finished The Various Flavors of Coffee, which comes out at the end of August. It’s the story of a young would-be poet and bohemian in 1890’s London who gets involved in the coffee trade. It’s an even more sensual story than The Wedding Officer—and although it’s comic in parts, it’s also sometimes darker, too. I think of it as being like dark chocolate or black Italian coffee: that hint of bitterness makes it all the more enticing.
When you finish writing your answers to this Q&A, what will you do next?
Cook!