‘The Rosie Project’ by Graeme Simsion is so wonderful. I’m going to attempt to enumerate my enjoyment of the novel; 1.tDon Tillman is an Associate Professor of genetics at the University of Melbourne. He has a black-belt in Akikido, and can cook a mean lobster salad. He also has Asperger syndrome – but he doesn’t know that. Don just thinks that there’s something missing that leaves him baffled by human behaviour and unappealing to other people (especially the opposite sex). But after his dear old neighbour tells him that he would make someone a good husband, Don decides to get married – and to limit the fallout of incompatibility and highly ineffective dating detection, Don decides to make a questionnaire to find himself the perfect wife. Thus, ‘The Wife Project’. This is not insane. It has actually happened, to Amy Webb from Baltimore who found her husband by using math and analytics to narrow the dating field. 2.tRosie Jarman is not a potential partner for Don’s Wife Project. She’s a barmaid who is perpetually late and vegetarian. But she is also beautiful and smart. And she’s on her own quest to find someone – her biological father. Rosie has bright red hair, dresses to impress no one but herself and calls em’ like she sees em’. But she is not a ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’. She does not want to ‘fix’ Don, she’s tough and imperfect and very aware of her failings. She is one of the best romantic-comedy heroines I've ever read. 3.tThis scene of Don speed-dating (which I read while on the train, and attracted many curious looks as I snorted my way through it);‘I've sequenced the questions for maximum speed of elimination,’ I explained. ‘I believe I can eliminate most women in less than forty seconds. Then you can choose the topic of discussion for the remaining time.’‘But then it won’t matter,’ said Frances. ‘I’ll have been eliminated.’‘Only as a potential partner. We may still be able to have an interesting discussion.’‘But I’ll have been eliminated.’I nodded. ‘Do you smoke?’‘Occasionally,’ she said. I put the questionnaire away. ‘Excellent.’ I was pleased that my question sequencing was working so well. We could have wasted time talking about ice-cream flavours and make-up only to find that she smoked. Needless to say, smoking was not negotiable. ‘No more questions. What would you like to discuss?’ 4.tDon Tillman is described as being a dead-ringer for Gregory Peck, circa Atticus Finch. *le sigh* 5.t‘The Rosie Project’ started as a screenplay. Graeme Simsion then decided to turn it into a novel – but still used film-writing techniques and his writing partners were film-industry experts. This is why ‘The Rosie Project’ is destined for the big-screen. The dialogue is so tight and pitch-perfect, the lines just leap up at you and it’s as though characters are speaking from the page. I want to see this film adapted – move over Harry & Sally, it’s all about Don & Rosie!6.tAt one point, Don and Rosie travel to New York where, Don says, “being weird is acceptable.” I am going to New York this year. I’m planning an entire day at the Natural History Museum, thanks to Don. I can’t wait! 7.tThe cover is in-your-face-magnificence. It called to me from the bookshelf, and loudly announced itself to fellow commuters as I read it on the train. I liked this. Very much. 8.tThroughout the novel Don starts to question if it’s him that’s missing some vital human-connection component, or if maybe other people are the problem . . . this is encapsulated in the relationship Don has with his best friend and fellow teacher, Gene. Gene is fifty-six and happily married to a beautiful woman with whom he has two children. But Gene’s wife, Claudia, has agreed to an open-marriage and Gene is currently attempting to sleep with a woman from every country. Gene dispenses romantic advice to Don. This is not a good idea, and was a fantastic counter-point to Rosie and Don’s romantic shenanigans.9.tI would actually love a follow-up to ‘The Rosie Project’ because when I got to the last page I immediately missed Don Tillman and wanted him back! But whatever Graeme Simsion decides to write next, I’ll be reading because he’s now an automatic-buy author for me.10.tI could keep going and going and going because I adored ‘The Rosie Project’, but let’s agree that ‘10’ is a good place to stop espousing on all the reasons everyone should read this book.
I was completely charmed by this novel. Sure, it's basically Sheldon Cooper Tries to Find a Wife, but I liked it.Don Tillman is a genetics professor in his late 30s who sets out to find a spouse by devising an elaborate questionnaire. Don is very fussy and regimented in his life, and allusions are made to him having Asperger's. Don thinks he can weed out any unsuitable partners and find someone well-matched for him. Meanwhile, he bumps into a woman named Rosie, who Don agrees is totally unsuitable, but he likes spending time with her anyway. This novel is essentially a romantic comedy, so if you like that genre, you will probably enjoy this. The writing is clever and amusing, and I frequently laughed out loud while reading. Of course Don makes social gaffes, but what I liked is how practical and resilient he was in such situations. He recognized his gifts, such as being smart, dedicated and having an excellent memory, and he used those talents to help him navigate this new world involving Rosie.I was pleased to hear that a sequel was released earlier this year, and I look forward to reading more about Don and Rosie's adventures.Favorite Quotes"A questionnaire! Such an obvious solution. A purpose-built, scientifically valid instrument incorporating current best practice to filter out the time wasters, the disorganized, the ice-cream discriminators, the visual-harassment complainers, the crystal gazers, the horoscope readers, the fashion obsessives, the religious fanatics, the vegans, the sports watchers, the creationists, the smokers, the scientifically illiterate, the homeopaths, leaving, ideally, the perfect partner, or realistically, a manageable short list of candidates.""Asperger's isn't a fault. It's a variant. It's potentially a major advantage. Asperger's syndrome is associated with organization, focus, innovative thinking, and rational detachment.""Throughout my life I have been criticized for a perceived lack of emotion, as if this were some absolute fault. Interactions with psychiatrists and psychologists ... start from the premise that I should be more 'in touch' with my emotions. What they really mean is that I should give in to them. I am perfectly happy to detect, recognize, and analyze emotions. This is a useful skill and I would like to be better at it. Occasionally an emotion can be enjoyed — the gratitude I felt for my sister, who visited me even during the bad times, the primitive feeling of well-being after a glass of wine — but we need to be vigilant that emotions do not cripple us."
Do You like book The Rosie Project (2013)?
This is another book I acquired based on you dear and wonderful Goodreads friends' reviews of it. My literary exploration has become a mind and soul-enriching adventure since joining GR. I have you all to thank for it.What a complex, intricate, profound and entertaining read! Adventure and laughter; enlightenment and emotional exploration. A professor in genetics approaches everything in life as a well- prepared project, for which he opens an official file. He lives his life by his own strictly-scheduled days. His extraordinary intelligence, combined with his Asperger behavior, determines his academic brilliance and social ineptitude. But everything changes when he decides to address his animal instinct of copulating and finding a life partner. He compiles a 17- page questionnaire with which he hopes to find the perfect partner. And then of course, the mix is on with often hilarious results. It is one of the all-time best romantic novels I have ever read - an absolute brilliant book. A thought-provoking, as well as highly entertaining all-night read. The main character, Associate Professor Don Tillman, can be regarded as a good combination of the characters Melvin Udal in the movie As Good As It Gets and Dr. Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory series.It is indeed an endearing proof that love can be scientifically explained, but must be artfully tested to confirm its existence.For those of you who know me by now, will also know that I do not 'do' the romance genre very easily. But this book is much much more than that. Even male readers will enjoy this rendition of love ;-)HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
—Margitte
This book started out really great. For the first 100 pages I was entertained and even got a kick out of the quirky narration. Then I sat back and thought about who I was reading into the mind of. Don is a sort of disturbed man. I was very uncomfortable throughout the last half of this book because he needed serious help dealing with the world that he wasn't receiving. Rather, people-- his friends-- would watch his actions and laugh. Don was such an unreliable narrator and what was an attempt at making a unique character read as someone who was creepy and deranged, and I disagree with how this book ended. I'm gonna have to ponder this one for a while. Very mixed feelings.
—Whitney Atkinson
This does for Autism what Pretty Woman did for prostitutes. It uses it for entertainment, it plays on it for laughter. It's a 1970's sitcom of a book.The character of (Shel)Don feels like little more that fan-fiction of The Big Bang Theory and Rosie seems like the perfect emulation of The Cool Girl as described in Gone Girl. She's too trite and quirky to be believable. Don himself is simply a figure of fun, he moves form scene to scene for our amusement in a "what will he do now?" manner as Julia Roberts did in Pretty Woman. The book groans plot wise, nothing is surprising and though it is an easy read it is an utterly underwhelming one.I spent most of the book thinking of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Fault in our Stars or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, books with exceptional narrators that show rather than tell. At every stage Don tells. He is created simply to amuse. I guess this is meant to be an entertaining book but given the subject matter it should have been more than a collection of "smirk at the autistic dude, it's ok cause the author had him say we could" sequences.http://atheistdad74.blogspot.com.au/ http://www.wattpad.com/story/18231712...
—Richard
