A review by staticdisplay
We Think The World of You by J.R. Ackerley

5.0

so beautiful and sad. it was incredibly painful to read. initially, I was interested in what would happen between Frank and Johnny, whether Frank would win his struggle with Megan, how Frank and Tom would duke it out. but none of those things happened or mattered. in loving Evie, Frank slowly alienates himself from people, although he also develops an intense understanding, even empathy, for them, while remaining entirely detached. he finds Johnny in a little bar and knows exactly what Johnny and Megan are thinking, how they've fought and how they will reconcile, and how he can use this knowledge to get what he wants - no longer Johnny's company, for Frank has realized that neither he nor Evie nor, in fact, anyone, will ever really matter to Johnny. as Evie frightens everyone away from Frank, he knows that it's happening, and why, just as he knows what his cousin is trying to do when she forces him to discipline Evie (and as he knows that his cousin will capitulate as he did with Johnny and Megan). it's very bleak. for such a short novel, and with such broadly drawn characters, Ackerley succeeds nonetheless in evoking real people whose real problems and real worlds are, as Frank realizes, not as flimsy as they seem to other people.