Don is an associate professor in genetics. He's also very
reserved and socially awkward. We get the impression that
he's affected by Asperger's syndrome. He fusses his way
through life, hating chit chat and explaining too much
science in conversation. He doesn't even know that some of
his interactions are funny. His couple of friends decide
that all evidence to the contrary, there must be a wife out
there for him. If you enjoy 'The Big Bang Theory' on TV you
will equally love THE ROSIE PROJECT.
By now aged thirty-nine and in a position to meet
intelligent women, Don just fails to relate to them or
socialise in expected ways. He micro-manages his time and
while he is kind and friendly to an older neighbour, Don
stops visiting her nursing home when her Alzheimer's
becomes so advanced that she doesn't know him. A girl
called Julie is interested in Don, and he immediately
decides to create a questionnaire to help him sort out who
is a potential wife. It would save him getting to know
people who aren't ideal. Gene and Claudia, Don's married
friends, invite him to dinner and work on his
questionnaire. They advise some practise in case the right
woman does respond on-line.
Rosie is a redheaded girl in a black dress with chains,
boots, glasses and arm rings. For some reason Gene sends
her to meet with Don and Don immediately makes a dinner
appointment with her. We don't know what's going to happen
next, but even before Don tries to wear his bright yellow
rainproof jacket into the posh restaurant and ends up using
his martial arts skills on the doormen, we know it's going
to be funny. Don's a good cook, provided his routine isn't
disrupted, and over lobster salad later he tells Rosie that
she's quite intelligent for a barmaid.
The unconventional Rosie is a finely written and formidable
heroine. The professor's evident proficiency in many areas
means that he isn't being drawn for pathos or ridicule, and
most of us will identify with a social skills problem from
our early days of dating or formal functions. Rosie needs
help which Don's expertise can provide, so they continue to
meet, with further hilarious results. Don is distressed
when he is warned by the Dean that his behaviour is
incorrect. If he cannot fit in at the science department of
a university, he can not fit in anywhere. Meanwhile his
friend Gene is carrying on in a way which most of us,
including his wife, would consider extremely incorrect. I
loved the sparkling tale of THE ROSIE PROJECT by Graeme
Simison which is set in Melbourne and visited some very
unexpected locations, and the more I read, the more I just
had to keep reading. This book won the Victorian State
Premier's Literary Award in 2012. As a modern romance it's
in a field of its own and so far this is my favourite book
of the year.
MEET DON TILLMAN, a brilliant yet socially challenged
professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a
wife. And so, in the orderly, evidence-based manner with
which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project
to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically
valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the
late arrivers.
Rosie Jarman is all these things. She also is strangely
beguiling, fiery, and intelligent. And while Don quickly
disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, as a
DNA expert Don is particularly suited to help Rosie on her
own quest: identifying her biological father. When an
unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on the
Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous
whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that, despite
your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds
you.
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