A review by teresatumminello
The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles by Giorgio Bassani

4.0

Sunlight glints off the gold-rimmed spectacles of Dr. Fadigati, though he’s the last person who’d make a spectacle of himself—unlike the young man he vacations with, whose whims are catered to by the doctor in his quest for companionship. Other beachgoers shun Dr. Fadigati, but the reader’s sympathy is with the kindly doctor, as is the narrator’s and the narrator’s father’s, who utters the words: “Poor thing.”

Unlike the doctor’s companion, the narrator is fairly unobtrusive, especially in the beginning of this novella, though we learn more of him, and his family, near the end. Perhaps because he is younger, he sees what is coming, unlike his parents, who view shards of the Racial Laws concerning “Israelites” through rose-colored glasses.

*

I read ‘The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles’ in this “collection:” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38730620-the-novel-of-ferrara