... more wasted than boyish, affecting a genial slouch

[KuaiLe]

I read this from "Free Radicals", a short story by Canadian writer Alice Munro. This part is describing a burglar who sat in his victim's kitchen and wouldn't leave.

"Under the kitchen skylight she saw that he wasn’t so young. When she opened the door she had just been aware of a skinny body, a face dark against the morning glare. The body, as she saw it now, was certainly skinny, but more wasted than boyish, affecting a genial slouch."

I'm confused about what "affecting a genial slouch" means here. The dictionary says genial means "friendly and cheerful" and slouch is "a lazy, drooping posture". Combined together, I have a hard time imagining how he looks like. Does this mean that he pretends to be friendly or simply mean that he is showing a slightly slouched posture?

 

[probus]

Alice Munro evidently believes that a stiffer, more formal posture seems less open and friendly than a more casual slouching posture.

 

[KuaiLe]

Can I ask one more question from the same story?
The burglar intends to take the victim's car and run away. Then they have the following conversation:

“That your car out front?”
“My husband’s car.”
“Husband? Where’s he?”
“He’s dead. I don’t drive. I mean to sell it, but I haven’t yet.”
“Two thousand four?”
“I think so. Yes.”

I don't understand what "Two thousand four" means in this context. Is he asking if the car was made in 2004? This doesn't seem to make sense but I don't have other ideas.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, he's asking what year the car was made. He's wondering how much it is worth.

 

[Rover_KE]

My first reaction was that the burglar was offering her $2,400 for it.

 

[KuaiLe]

My first reaction was that the burglar was offering her $2,400 for it.

At first I thought so, too. But then he would be an overly polite burglar.
And I actually tried to google if "two thousand four" means 2,400 or 2,004.
Can it mean both 2,400 and 2,004?

 

[emsr2d2]

At first I thought so, too. But then he would be an overly polite burglar.
And I actually tried to google if "two thousand four" means 2,400 or 2,004.
Can it mean both 2,400 and 2,004?

In a casual conversation about money, "two thousand [and] four" could be taken to mean 2,400, but not 2,004. You might also hear just "two four". The participants in the conversation would almost certainly know roughly what figure they're talking about. If someone was selling you a car and told you that it's "two four", you wouldn't think it was £2.04 (two pounds and four pence), and we don't use that expression to mean 240 (two hundred and forty) or 204 (two hundred and four). Of course, when it comes to money, it's always best to be precise and use the exact figure.