Kiss Carlo, by Andriana Trigiani

The novels of Andriana Trigiani are a guilty pleasure.  It’s hard to look like you're reading serious literary fiction when the dust jacket is covered in pink flowers, has a script font, and features a model wearing a Balenciaga gown from the cover of a 1951 Harper’s Bazaar.  But Trigiani really is a good writer with a vivid eye for color, fashion, and a wicked appreciation of the foibles of her characters.  Her plots, usually romantic, draw on her own Italian family and heritage.  You feel as if you have been invited to dinner at a big, boisterous table with wonderful food.  This outing, set just after World War II, was more formulaic than some of her earlier work, and the plot depends too much on a silly impersonation of an Italian ambassador. Nicky Castone is an orphan cousin raised by one branch of the big Palazzini family.  He’s been engaged through the war years and beyond to Peachy DePIno, who isn’t getting any younger and is growing impatient for her Big Italian Wedding.  Nicky is somewhat conflicted about his choice of a bride and taken aback by the elaborate preparations.  He drives a cab by day and moonlights as a prompter and jack-or-all-trades at a struggling old theater run by Calla Borelli, which was founded by her aging father.  There he catches the acting bug when he is unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight in the final act of Twelfth Night.  Peachy is not keen.  Several other candidates for Nicky’s affections are presented – will he end up with any of them?  Will he end up with the right one?  Of course he will.  532 pp.