The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion
I read a review in The Australian and then a friend recommended, so I had to read it. And I am glad I did – it is hilarious!
Here is the blurb …
Meet Don Tillman.
Don is getting married.
He just doesn’t know who to yet.
But he has designed a very detailed questionnaire to help him find the perfect woman.
One thing he already knows, though, is that it’s not Rosie.
Absolutely, completely, definitely not.
Telling the story of Rosie and Don, Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project is an international phenomenon, sold in over thirty countries – and counting.
Don Tillman is a socially challenged genetics professor who’s decided the time has come to find a wife. His questionnaire is intended to weed out anyone who’s unsuitable. The trouble is, Don has rather high standards and doesn’t really do flexible so, despite lots of takers – he looks like Gregory Peck – he’s not having much success in identifying The One.
When Rosie Jarman comes to his office, Don assumes it’s to apply for the Wife Project – and duly discounts her on the grounds she smokes, drinks, doesn’t eat meat, and is incapable of punctuality. However, Rosie has no interest in becoming Mrs Tillman and is actually there to enlist Don’s assistance in a professional capacity: to help her find her biological father.
Sometimes, though, you don’t find love: love finds you…
I keep recommending this book to everyone – it is light and funny, but well-written. Don reminds me of Sheldon (from the Big Bang Theory). He obviously lies somewhere on the autistic spectrum and he is aware that he is ‘wired differently’. He embarks on a project to find a wife – he is intelligent, earns good money he should be able to find someone with whom to reproduce. He doesn’t want to waste any time meeting the wrong woman, so he devises a sixteen page questionnaire (that’s right 16 pages!) he wants to avoid previous mishaps like the ice cream flavour incident. Don thinks Rosie visits his office as part of the Wife Project and promptly asks her out to dinner. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth Rosie accepts on condition that they go to an expensive restaurant (this involves Don hacking into their reservation system to get a table at such short notice). Their adventure begins. As Don is so socially inept, the reader feels they know more about what is going on between him and Rosie than he does.
This is a really quick read and it’s lots of fun.
More reviews …
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-rosie-project-20130222-2ewaz.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/23/aspergers-novel-1m-debut