Word: swedes
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...narrated by Roth’s authorial alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, who examines his high school’s star athlete—a man nicknamed “the Swede” (although he, like the narrator, is Jewish). On the very first page Roth explains that the Swede gave the neighborhood the chance to “enter into a fantasy about itself and about the world.” Zuckerman explains, “Our families could forget the way things actually work and make an athletic performance the repository of all their hopes...
...first chapter, which takes place years after they have graduated high school, the Swede, who wants help writing a memoir about his recently deceased father, invites the elderly Zuckerman to dinner. Zuckerman is captivated by the opportunity to explore what he dubs “the substratum,” his term for the deep and authentic life of the mind. This quest for the profound proves devastating as the Swede only discusses the happy, superficial lives of his family and does not even mention grieving for his father. During the dinner scene, Roth juxtaposes paragraphs in which the Swede...
...dinner conversation dramatizes Roth’s self-destructive tension between the inner and outer life, which paralyzes the novel. Ironically, Zuckerman himself lacks a self-sufficient inner life and must search for the nonexistent inner life of the Swede to justify his own mental existence. While the Swede hopes to resolve the troubles of his inner life with the accomplishments of the outer life, the remaining characters are cut off from meaningful action...
When Zennstrom, 43, heard earlier this year that eBay wanted to divest itself of Skype, which had not created the kind of synergies the online auction house had hoped for, he approached eBay proposing to buy back the webphone company at a substantial discount. The Swede also made overtures to private-equity players in an effort to structure a deal. However, both eBay and private equity gave Zennstrom the brush. (Read "eBay Bids for Revitalization...
...like a software engineer scorned. Zennstrom, according to his critics, has apparently decided that if he can't have Skype, nobody will. His court action hinges on the allegation that eBay tinkered with his proprietary software in a move to replace it, thereby possibly voiding any future claims the Swede might have against it or Skype. The Scandis see it differently: "eBay is trying to take from Joltid what it couldn't buy," says London-based spokesman Mark Bolland, noting that the webphone company's source code is something Zennstrom and Friis have always jealously guarded, never selling...