translation from sentence in Shanghai Baby

[taibeihong]

Can someone help me understand what this sentence means? 他迫切而又煞有 介事地说 I understand the individual words, but the grammar and word compunds escape my comprehension (especially ! This is the context (taken from Shanghai Baby, chapter 2):

那架老式的转盘电话机用刺耳的声音响起来，是天天打来的。几乎每天这个时候都 能收到他的一个电话，恰好是我们对各自所呆的地方感到厌倦的时候。他迫切而又煞有 介事地说：“老时间，老地点，我等你一起吃晚饭。”

Thanks!

[Jim]

I think the confusion stems from 煞有介事. This is a set phrase with its own grammar going on, but you should read it as a single object in terms of interpreting the grammar of the whole.

"He said, with a mix of urgency and fake sincerity..."

[taibeihong]

Thanks! I thought it could be a set phrase, but I couldn't find it in my dictionary (or, more probably, it was there and I missed it. )

My other question was about 而又, but now that I know how which characters go with which, it makes sense.

BTW, has anybody read Shanghai Baby in Chinese? I'm reading it, VERY SLOWLY, as it has a lot of vocab I didn't know. Can someone tell me what kind of language the author is using? I mean, if I use the expressions I find in the book, will I sound funny, will people have a hard time understanding me, will it sound colloquial?

[skylee]

Here are some comments on this book -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2967

[in_lab]

I happened to see 煞有介事 in the dictionary yesterday when I was searching for 煞有其事. But I'm still not sure what 煞有其事 means. Any help?

[skylee]

煞有介事 -> being unnecessarily serious/earnest for things or in situations which (normally) do not require that level of seriousness/earnestness; making a fuss over small things.

[ever00t]

煞有介事 - pretend to be serious about sth.