Part two

by leobackman

Reading log: I am really enjoying this book. The main character, as i explained in my first log entry, gives me chills. There is nothing redeeming about him and yet i find myself sympathising to his anger with the world. The nuisances in the main character, robs life, constituted by his colleagues, parents and work are annoying me as the reader to almost the same extent as it does him. I wish sometimes you could just do the right thing and ride out the, pardon me, shitstorm a phonecall from a parent or even the meeting of a person who just makes you feel bad can cause inside you. Even if Rob has been taken to the extreme there are still obvious similarities to how we tend to act when we are scorned, hurt or feel inadequate.

 The silver lining was however the anecdote were Rob gets a call from a woman who wants to sell him her record collection. As he starts to go through the albums not knowing what to expect and comes to realize there are tons of rarities, worth several grand. The odd woman than asks 50 quid for the lot. Puzzled rob asks what she is playing at selling the best record collection he’s ever seen for fifty quid and she explains they belong to her husband “He’s in Spain with a twenty-three-year-old. A friend of my daughter’s. He had the fucking cheek to phone up and ask to borrow some money and I refused, so he asked me to sell his singles collection and send him a cheque for whatever I got minus ten per cent commission. Which reminds me. Can you make sure you give me a five pound note? I want to frame it and put it on the wall.”. I find the story hilarious. Partly because it makes me remember a similar event between an acquaintance of mine and her husband, who cheated and she desided to pack up and leave when she realized his company, car and house were all in her possession, in paper at least, for tax-reasons. She took off with all of it. I came to realize, not without cringing, that have a soft spot for the universe settling scores.

Assignment: The language of High Fidelity is somewhat slangy and i do have to look up a word every once in a while. No matter, slang is a great way to earn confidence in a foreign language, being able to speak more naturally is part of the reason i assume. On the other hand the way the dialogue and the inner monologue of Robs are built with reasonably short sentences and a large impact with few words wich makes the pages fly by. There is a quote, i am way too absentminded to remember who said it or the exact quote but here goes “Great books consists of mediocre sentences held together by a few great ones.” This is very true in this case, the language is ok, keeps you going, but it really is all about the ones that makes your heart race. For instance this sequence is, in my opinion, great (about his former dreamgirl Charlie “She talked a lot, so that you didn’t have those terrible, strained silences that seemed to characterize most of my sixth-form dates, and when she talked she said remarkably intresting things – about her course, about my course, about music, about films and books and politics. And she liked me. She liked me. She liked me. She liked me. Or at least, I think she did.” and this one aswell “I was intimidated by the other men on her dign course and became convinced that she was going to go off with one of them. She went off with one of them.”. later in the book when a conversation between Rob and the girl who left him, Laura, have spoken and he has found out she hasn’t had sex with her knew, to his knoledge, lover who is their former neighbour “Yes! Yes! This is fantastic news! Mr Sixty Minute Man hasn’t even clocked on yet! I kiss her on the cheek and go to the pub to meet Dick and Barry. I feel like a new man, although not ver much like a New Man. I feel so much better, in fact, that I go straight out and sleep with Marie.

Wordlist:

Dismissiveness (with a tender dismissiveness) – ogiltigförklarande, med ömt ogiltigförklarande

Frippery – Pretantiös elegans

Partition – skiljevägg

Contempt – förakt

self-deluding – självbedragande (självbedregeri)

Ill-at-ease – Illa till mods

obtuse – Trubbig, inte lyhörd, perseptionslös (great word by the way)

Thatcherism – Thacherism (the political style conducted by Margaret Thatcher)

Corker – Slanguttryck för något uppseendeväckande eller slående

Rostrum – Podeum, estrad

Incidentally – appropå något, av tillfälle

Thimbles – fingerborgar

beermats – underlägg för ölstop

Go for a slash – Gå pissa

soppy – hjärtnupen, sliskigt sorglig

sheepishly – fåraktigt

Flog – Prygla

knob – ligga med

adulterer – någon som begår äktenskapsbrott

flaking – fjällande