Albert, the protagonist of \Leaving Sardinia,"" simply cannot carry the book by himself. He may be embarrassingly polite at times and strangely impulsive at others, but he is not fascinating enough to make the work into the love story it could be. With voyeuristic tendencies and an on-again, off-again fling with Elena, a lovely barista at a caf?? in Rome, Albert's story could use some more characters and a few less diversions.
Hans-Ulrich Treichel, the author of ""Leaving Sardinia,"" is up to the task of crafting a fuller story. His first novel, ""Lost,"" met with widespread critical acclaim and examined the sense of abandonment in post-World War II Germany. Kirkus Reviews called ""Lost"" a ""gripping and resonant parable, done with remarkable economy, subtlety and finesse."" With praise of that caliber, Treichel set himself up for a fall with his second novel and luckily gets away with only a stumble.
The main character of ""Leaving Sardinia"" is part nomad, part romantic and never sure of himself. Albert (no last name is ever given) jumps around Europe in an attempt to study art and get away from last semester's embarrassments. He seems like a quiet misfit everywhere he goes and turns his passions to women in whatever ways they'll put up with him. Albert's wayward desires are probably the most comical element of the book. In one scene, he's at a swimming pool with a comic book peering through a hole in it to look at girls in bathing suits. In another episode he's fascinated by medieval works of art and their analyses that compare the hole in Jesus' side to female genitalia. At one point, Albert takes in a Sri Lankan hermaphrodite only knowing that she (or he) is Sri Lankan. All these episodes would be tremendously entertaining if they didn't take away from the central focus of the work-Albert's romance with Elena.
BecauseAlbert immediately thinks Elena is unattainable, it seems improbable that the two wind up together. Treichel does not draw out the nervous days between the two people meeting and their physical relationship. From the beginning, the whole affair is rushed and, consequently, Albert and Elena never seem like a couple.
Another side of that problem is that Treichel makes a one-sided story of two people. Albert has plenty of nuances to carry him to the final pages, but Elena, beside her Italian features, has little to offer. About three-quarter of the way through ""Leaving Sardinia"" she receives the most description available. Treichel writes, ""Elena was a menefreghista, a person with an unconditional will to let the world's affairs pass her by and to be touched by them as little as possible."" Because Elena is such a flat character, her pairing with Albert is awkward and even out of place.
Adding to the trouble is that ""Leaving Sardinia"" was originally published in German and translated by John E. Woods. Though Woods' skill shouldn't be questioned, the foreign quality of the work should. At its core ""Leaving Sardinia"" is about a German man searching Italy for a love and only finding lovers. If Treichel had made Albert a little less desperate and his lovers a lot more dynamic, the book would have been the romantic parable it ought to be.
""Leaving Sardinia"" is written by Hans-Ulrich Treichel and translated by James E. Woods. It is published by Pantheon Books.
