“Cancer Vixen” is hilarious, especially its portrayal of her overbearing Italian mother, whom Marisa calls the Sophia Loren of New Jersey. But at the heart of the book is Acocella’s relationship with her husband, Silvano, who owns Da Silvano, a trendy downtown-Manhattan restaurant. Silvano is a pudgy version of Giorgio Armani with an impenetrable Italian accent. “I always thought in a relationship a woman had to be perfect all the time … and breast cancer is definitely a major imperfection,” Acocella says. They were married less than a month after her diagnosis. She was terrified he would leave her–especially since Da Silvano is swarming with models. One actually dropped her business card into Silvano’s lap and said, “I’m not sick. Call me if you want a healthy relationship.” He fed the card to a dog at the table. “The cancer was something that made my relationship with him much better,” Acocella says. “It validated it.”
The comparison to another Manhattan career girl, Carrie Bradshaw, would not be a stretch. For one thing, Acocella shares the addiction to shoes. She once paid $1,800 for a pair of boots. “But they’re so great! Nobody has them,” she says defensively. We’re guessing they’re Italian.
