The book opens with a dramatic scene on the rooftop of an apartment building in Greenwich Village. Valentine Roncalli was comforting her friend and business partner Bret whose wife had just left him and they kissed. Ten years ago the two had been engaged but it hadn't worked out. Now Valentine is dating Gianluca Vecchiarelli, a tanner from Italy who has come up to the rooftop to ask her to marry him which he does anyway. And she, a shoemaker, accepts.
Then they go to the feast of seven fishes at her mom's house in order to announce their engagement, but her father tells them to leave because the fighting is really bad. Her sister's husband, Charlie has been laid off and Great Aunt Feen is drunk and in a mood to tear people apart. Great Aunt Feen is a bitter woman and mean even when sober but when drunk all bets are off. And Charlie has been drinking too so he's giving as good as he's getting. His wife Tess is defending him too. But Feen's not just attacking Charlie she's going after everybody. Alfred and Pamela, Jacklyn and Tom and mom and dad, and gram and Dominic, who is Gianluca's father. The fighting stops when Gianluca announces their engagement. Valentine is the last in the family to get married. Her best friend Gabriel, who is often comic relief and is likely gay, is thrilled and happy to find out that he is the maid of honor.
Her mother gets her into Leonard's a reception Hall for Italians that is the creme of the crop but the opening she gets is February 14, two months away. They don't have time to get to know each other better. She tells him she's keeping her last name and he's upset by this and she compromises by agreeing to take his name around the house. And he keeps secrets. Lots of them. Which drives her crazy of course. He keeps it a secret that they've lost their shoemaker and distributer. I didn't like him because he kept so many secrets and it seemed to me like he wanted her to move to Italy, which she couldn't and which wouldn't make her happy.
But when you get to the end of the book you find yourself falling in love with him and changing your mind about him. This was a fabulous book filled with surprises and great characters. Like Alfred and Pamela and how the whole family pitches in for Alfred to be nice to Pamela in order to save their marriage. Or how Valentine gets along with Orsola her grown stepdaughter and Guiluca's ex-wife. I really enjoyed this novel and I give it five out of five stars.
Quotes
Everyone seems perfect in the moonlight.
-Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p 5)
“All families are crazy” “Why is that” “People are
involved.”
-Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company -p 7)
“If you have love, what more do you need?” “Permission.”
Gianluca laughed. “When I asked your father for your hand he cried.” “He was
disappointed you only requested the hand.
He hoped you would take the entire kit.”
= Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company 7-8)
The only time people get in trouble is when they live
their lives for someone else. It never
works. you end up living a bitter life that’s not your own. And the very people you gave up everything for
never acknowledge all you sacrificed for them
-Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p 47)
Valentine, you listen to me. You’re going to have a
proper wedding, no running off. That’s
not even real. Catholics do not go to city hall. We marry in cathedrals. You get a white carpet from the foyer to the alter. Pews marked with ribbons. For the love of Mary we festoon. We make a sacrament.
It’s holy. We get blessed and re-up our baptismal promises.
- Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company 62)
Pity is the ruination of women. When we feel sorry for a man we get into trouble.
- Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p 97)
Years from now, you’ll want a permanent record of your
wedding. An invitation is the bride’s Dead Sea scroll at the bottom of her hope
chest.
=p 108)
I modeled the diamond. “This doesn’t count?” “Not quite.
An engagement ring is all well and good, but the deal isn’t a deal until you
place a thin platinum band next to it. , locking the future into place with a 24 -K Lojack. Once you have the blessed
band, you’re golden.”
- Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p 113)
“She didn’t want to be a bridesmaid” “Good call. Maybe
she didn’t want to get lung cancer from all the hair spray.”
= Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p 141)
“Okay, then if I
can’t be the eater who stays skinny, I’d want to be invisible, so I could eat
whatever I want and no one would look at me,” Tess said. “That’s called
marriage,” Gabriel said.
- Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p 150)
“He wanted me.” “And he still does.” “You think so?” “Honey,
only a man that loved you would move to Greenwich Village and build a new life
when his old one was perfectly fine. May I point out that he left Tuscany for
you? That’s the one place on earth
everyone wants to go and never wants to leave. And yet, he did it for you; It’s
you that he wants. It’s you that he married.
- Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p168)
Someday I would look back on this fight and know for
certain that there is only one fight in a marriage, the first one. And as much as
you might try, the fight is never solved. Over time, it becomes a conundrum,
the immovable thing, the inexplicable conflict that forms a wall between you. It
grows higher and higher, and then the vines come, and when the wall is grown
over in bramble and weed, there’s no getting over it. You cannot see past it,
get around it, or blow through it. It takes up the space between you, and no
amount of love can bring that wall down.
- Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p176)
“I blew it!” “He chose you didn’t he?” I nodded. “So he got what he wanted. He had his dream.
A man who gets his dream in this life has everything.”
- Adriana Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company p 313)
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