I am reading the Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee.
It has ' He passed the bar immediately, though I know he never intended to practice the law or big corporate business. He wanted the credentials. But that sounds too cynical of him, which would be all wrong. He wasn't vulnerable to that kind of pettiness.'
I do not quite understand that sentence. Thank you very much.
The English in this passage isn't quite correct. I would correct it to this:
He passed the bar immediately, although I know he never intended to practice law or join a big corporation. He wanted the credentials. But that sounds too cynical for him; it would be all wrong. He wasn't vulnerable to that kind of pettiness.
Here are some examples of when I might use of:
I don't think of him as that cynical.
That sort of cynicism is not something that I would expect of him.
From what I know of him, I wouldn't expect him to be that cynical.
Use of prepositions is highly idiomatic, and many phrases simply have to be learned by rote.
to be x: adjective of someone is very idiomatic in English.
Situations:
Person One: John wants to win the race this year! [John is a slow runner]
Person Two: That's very ambitious of him.
Person One: He only wanted the credentials. Person Two: That's very cynical of him.
Person One: They want to give us a party! Person Two: That's very nice of them.
This form is common and found everywhere in English.
[Please note: the paragraph has a couple of odd things. Generally, for example, we say practice law, no the. And we would not say: practice corporate business, which the sentence implies. It just isn't the best writing....]
That sounds too cynical for him. means: Those comments or ideas sound to cynical for him to make or have, respectively.
