Keri's take on The Wedding Officer

I enjoyed this book a lot, especially the love story and beautiful descriptions of Italy and the food. The war part got a little bit tiresome at times, but there were enough interesting bits to keep me going through it. I agree with the Kelly that it did seem to wrap up quickly at the end and Livia seemed to abruptly become a communist and able to fight.

The food descriptions were mouth-watering even when I knew it was food I would never want to try in real life. But some of the other foods were so simple and sounded so delicious that I must try them...especially I want to try fettuccine al limone. I also liked what Livia says about how "in Italy we don't cook dishes, we cook ingredients...First, we decide what looks good, and then we buy the other things we need to go with it."

I agree with what Aunt Annette mentioned about how Italians saw the war and their "liberators". One quote that stuck out for me was "...it was clear that liberation was going to be no better, and in many ways far worse, than occupation by the Germans...Now Italy was a battleground in which neither side was Italian, and for both sides, the needs of the civilian population came a poor second to the importance of winning the war."

As for Livia's decision to basically sell herself to Alberto in order to get needed medicine for her father...I could see why she chose to do it. I don't think it was her fault that her father was burned, and I don't think that she had to do what she did. But I can see why she felt that she must do it...but she knew it wasn't right, she knew that it changed her, and ultimately she chose a fate that many would see as worse by going to Germany with the prostitutes instead of marrying him. I don't think I would have made the same choices she made...but how can I really know what I would do if I was in her same circumstances?

Back on a happier note, I also enjoyed how James began to see how different life could be from the one he had always known...and began to fall in love with the food, culture, people and scenery of Italy.

• "...this new dish was something else, teasing his appetite awake again, and the intensity of its flavors bringing to life taste buds he had never even knew existed."
• "...James felt a pang of affection for the place; so unpredictable, so maddening, yet capable of springing surprises like putting a sleeping girl on your motorbike in the middle of the night, and in the middle of a war to boot."
• "It must be wonderful, he thought, to love a place as much as she clearly loved it here. Nowhere that he had ever lived has inspired such affection in him. For him, home was simply where you went when you weren't away at school."
• "A person can't choose where he's born. But he can choose where he spends his life, and I want to spend mine here."

Additionally, since it doesn't fit in anywhere else really...I liked what Livia said to James just before they fight the Germans after he asks her to marry him. "If you're going to marry me, James...you're going to have to get a lot less attached to sense." :)