They meet by chance the next day, discovering they have the same violin teacher. That night Ernesto attends a violin recital and at intermission sees a beautiful boy a bit younger than himself but fails to locate him at the end of the concert. His mother succeeds in arranging for his employer to rehire Ernesto, who then reveals his sexual history to his mother to avoid taking up his clerk's post again. Ending his employment will also end his casual encounters with "the man" at work. He resents his employer and resigns his post with an insulting letter. He becomes resentful about being overworked, though he refuses to share tasks with a younger assistant. His tentative approach to manhood is reflected in a visit to the barber where he has his first shave, though he hardly seems to need it. He imagines a different life for himself, perhaps as an adored concert violinist, though he lacks talent. Ernesto also has one experience with a female prostitute. Their roles reflect classical models, with the older man insisting that since he has a beard he must be the active partner in intercourse. He has his first sexual experiences on several occasions with a 28-year-old laborer identified as "the man". He adopts leftist political views, partly out of conviction and partly to needle Wilder. When he was thirteen, he spent a perfect summer reading the Arabian Nights. He and his mother rely on the charity of relatives, whose control Ernesto resents. Ernesto, a 16-year-old apprentice clerk to a flour merchant named Wilder, lives with his mother and aunt. The events in the novel take place in the course of a month in 1898 in Trieste.
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