Cappellani's second novel (after Who Is Lou Sciortino?
), a madcap comedy structured as a three-act play and set in contemporary Sicily, pays homage to Shakespeare and bristles with hilariously vulgar stabs at sex, art and family. Avant-garde theater director Tino Cagnotto produces a version of Romeo and Juliet
ripe with crude sexual humor and starring nonclassical actors, including a 60-year-old Romeo. As the city of Catania buzzes about whether Jano Caporeale, the actor playing Romeo, will perform a lewd gesture onstage, rising Mafia kingpin Alfio Turrisi falls in love with the daughter of his rival. But this isn't the tragedy of the Montagues and Capulets; Turi Pirrotta is thrilled at the prospect of having his daughter marry Turrisi. Betty, however, might not be so easily wooed. Tino, meanwhile, has a passionate affair with a much younger man who might even be in love with him. Ineffectual culture commissioners, incompetent mobsters and lovably coldhearted aristocrats add plenty of color. Some of the jokes may be too insidery, but the sheer energy and velocity of this merry farce will sweep readers away. (Oct.)
