We Think the World of You (New York Review Books Classics) - Softcover

Ackerley, J.R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0940322269 ISBN 13: 9780940322264

Publisher: NYRB Classics, 2000

Synopsis

This powerful short novel, with its extraordinary mixture of acute social realism and dark fantasy, was described by J. R. Ackerley himself as "a fairy tale for adults." Frank, the narrator, is a middle-aged civil servant, intelligent, acerbic, self-righteous, angry. He is in love with Johnny, a young, married, working-class man with a sweetly easy-going nature. When Johnny is sent to prison for committing a petty theft, Frank gets caught up in a struggle with Johnny's wife and parents for access to him. Their struggle finds a strange focus in Johnny's dog—a beautiful but neglected German shepherd named Evie. And it is she, in the end, who becomes the improbable and undeniable guardian of Frank's inner world.

About this title

About the Author

J.R Ackerley (1896-1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. His works include three memoirs, Hindoo Holiday, My Dog Tulip, and My Father and Myself, and a novel, We Think the World of You.

From Publishers Weekly

At the heart of this offbeat, subtle comedy of class warfare is a lovingly detailed account of a man's attachment to his dog, a subject to which the late Ackerley ( My Dog Tulip ) was no stranger. Frank, a well-bred English servant, reluctantly agrees to take care of Evie after the pup's owner, shiftless, working-class Johnny, goes to jail for housebreaking. Frank has overweening contempt for Johnny's family: his pregnant wife Megan; their bratty kids; Johnny's cheerfully impudent mother, Millie; and Millie's fourth husband, Tom. As a tug-of-war develops over who is to take responsibility for the dog, murderous passions swirl around Evie, who turns out to have an intense emotional life of her own. Frank, the supercilious narrator, is engagingreminiscent of a haughty English butlerthough his snobbery becomes tiresome. Funny, touching and delightful, this long out-of-print novel (reissued to coincide with the release of a film version) is memorable for its sharp character portrayals and, above all, for its unabashed exploration of the love that unites human and pet.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYRB Classics
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0940322269
• ISBN 13: 9780940322264
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 205