Un impiegatuccio francese, scontento del lavoro che fa e della donna con la quale vive, trova il coraggio, durante i giorni di ferie trascorsi a Firenze, di lasciare la sua compagna e il lavoro. E come per premiare il suo coraggio, il caso sembra accorgersi di lui.

I managed to totally skip a review of this when I finished it, which may explain how I felt about it. I was lost alot of the time, following the basic plot elements but missing all the undertones. It rambled and roamed and the journey wasn't awful but often confusing and I started to feel as drunk as the characters.

Bored with his job, tired of his fiance, a civil servant walks away from it all. He joins a mysterious, ridiculously wealthy woman sailing the Mediterranean and the African coast in search of her lover (the sailor in the title).

During the course of the voyage, she tells him the story of her life. Former crew members contact her with reports of "sightings" of the sailor. These take them on onshore adventures.

But mostly they talk - and drink. She has nothing in life to do except look for the sailor and tell her story. He has nothing to do but go along on the search and listen.

The theme is loneliness, boredom, ennui. "Darkness covered the deck and the sea. It spread over me too, and ate at my heart."

Are they looking for the sailor? Or for happiness? Or for the elusive "meaning of life"?

It's quite a trip and I'm glad I went along. ( )

I didn't quite get the gist of this book. The characters are too vaguely described, the plot is simplistic and the message (if there is any) irrelevant. It is still interesting enough because of the suggestive travel prosa and the fluid writing style. ( )

It's no Ravishing of Lol Stein, but I liked it. ( )