Usage of になる and こう in this sentence, sentence structure


I came across the sentence

> 「新聞なんか見るわけないんじゃん」それが自慢になるかのように、こう言って智子は笑った。

I would translate the sentence as:

> ＞There is no way I would read a newspaper or something＜ said Tomoko as if it
> would be something to be proud of and laughed.

First thing which confuses me is the usage of になる. If I had to write a
sentence like that I would have written: それが自慢なことかのように Does the usage of になる
imply that not reading newspapers is one of many things one/she could become
proud of?

The second thing ist about 、こう. To me it seems like a breach in the sentence
structure which disturbs the reading flow. I would have probably written
…かのように言った智子は笑う。

Could I rephrase the sentence like that? Does the usage of 、こう emphasize the
aspect that the first half is the impression of the protagonist while the
later half is rather objective/for everyone to observe?




When you look up #4 in
[goo辞書](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/165423/meaning/m0u/) or #6 in
[Jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B), you can find that
Xになる means "function as X" or "play a role of X". So, それが自慢になる（かのように） means
"(as if) it's accepted as her honor".

こう is just an demonstrative pro-adverb to indicate the contents in the
parentheses. In other words, the sentence is the same as
智子は、それが自慢になるかのように「新聞なんか…」と言って笑った with a different word order.




When you look up #4 in
[goo辞書](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/165423/meaning/m0u/) or #6 in
[Jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B), you can find that
Xになる means "function as X" or "play a role of X". So, それが自慢になる（かのように） means
"(as if) it's accepted as her honor".

こう is just an demonstrative pro-adverb to indicate the contents in the
parentheses. In other words, the sentence is the same as
智子は、それが自慢になるかのように「新聞なんか…」と言って笑った with a different word order.

