The Rosie Project
Released in April 2013, The Rosie Project is the first novel
by Graeme Simsion who previously has written two books and several papers about
data-modelling. The Rosie Project revolves around a 39 year old geneticist
named Don Tillman who wants to find himself a wife.
The book begins with Don covering a lecture on Aspergers for
Gene Barrow, The head of the Psychology department at Melbourne University and
also Don’s best friend and colleague. After using two lunch breaks from over
the past couple of days to cram in some research on autism spectrum disorders and
preparing his presentation which is due for 7pm at a school, to which he
arrives at 6:57PM allowing himself three minutes to set up the equipment in the hall where he
meets Julie the convenor for the lecture who makes small talk while Don focuses
on preparing everything not wanting to waste time.
While his attention is on the task at hand, Don doesn’t see
the audience for the presentation enter and take their seats. Julie then asks
about Gene who Don reveals is out on a date instead of being ill as he had told
Julie and eighteen minutes later than planned, Don begins his talk which
focuses on the genetic aspects of the condition and even uses a scenario where
a lack of emotion could be an asset where they were in hiding from enemies but
a crying baby gives them away but they also have a gun. The kids give
suggestions such as ambush the enemy or even shooting the baby while everyone
else is stunned by the idea and this prompts an early end to the lecture and
while Don is packing up, Julie asks if he could join her for a drink but Don
turns her down having got things back on schedule and he states that he has
other activities scheduled.
Two days later, Don gets a call from Julie who asks him a
question about a point he made during the lecture where he mentioned a company
in Denmark that employed people with Aspergers for computer application
testing. The question she asks is how candidates are found because as she puts it "Most adults with Aspergers don't even know they have it". Don guesses that they use a questionnaire as a primary filter which gives him an
idea:
Design a detailed and strict questionnaire that filters out any
unpromising candidates: women who are unpunctual, overweight, vegetarian, those
who drink or smoke or have STDs.
With this measure now in place, Don hangs up on Julie and embarks
on his now dubbed Wife Project and hopes to find his ideal partner and avoid
mistakes like in his past attempts at finding a partner.
The subject of autism has been used in fiction before with
the best example being The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by
Mark Haddon from 2003 where the story revolves around a 15 year old boy with
Aspergers looking into a murder of a neighbour’s dog with a pitch fork whereas Simsion’s
first novel explores how the condition affects an undiagnosed adult and how he
approaches a romantic situation and everyday life in general.
The irony is where everyone else can see the variant in Don,
he can’t see it in himself whereas he sees it in other people such as Lazlo a
colleague of his at Melbourne University. This creates some degree of confusion
in some readers due to Don regularly describing stock features of Aspergers in
reference to himself – “I am not good at non-verbal communication”; “Unlike
many people, I am very comfortable with repetition”.
The story is presented in a mix of past tense and present
tense with Don himself providing the narration which is pitch perfect while also being precise and formal with a geeky tone that encapsulates his rigidly scheduled, rationally
detached world-view.
Throughout the book we get to know Don and his routines,
e.g. the very efficient standardised meal system, and as he devises his
questionnaire to seek out the perfect wife, then Rosie enters the story and it
starts to drift off in another direction where we see Don break away (rather reluctantly)
from his structured and organised lifestyle into new expanses he has never
experienced before and he also learns that life and love don’t adhere to logical
thought and planning.
The relationship between Don and Rosie is primarily based on
Rosie’s search for her real father as her mother never revealed his identity
before she died when Rosie was a child and Don with his expertise of being a
professor of genetics is the perfect person to help her. Initially there is
confusion between the two with Don mistaking Rosie as a candidate for his Wife
Project and Rosie thinking that Don is helping her because he has an interest
in her.
Even when this is cleared up later on, they both continue
with The Father Project which puts the two into an entertaining series of comic
set pieces and occasionally life-threatening situations and despite their
seemingly justified approach to being in each other’s company, a relationship
begins to form.
However I do have two minor issues with this book and they
go as follows:
- Slight misrepresentation of those on the autism spectrum:
The assumptions presented here about
people with autism is that they all possess extraordinary mental capabilities,
when in fact only a small minority of people with the condition do and that the
majority of autistic people actually have some form of learning disability.
This makes it almost a cliché view of the condition unfortunately which is
shared with other books that touch on autism.
- The ending:
The final act of the book has a
more brisk pace compared with the rest of the story which partly disrupts the
flow and build-up. This makes it seem to some readers like it was rushed in retropect.
Despite these issues, I immensely
enjoyed The Rosie Project with its originality, quirkiness, wit, interesting and
well-defined characters, plot twists, and setting. I also found it to be warm-hearted
and perfectly pitched. At its core, The Rosie Project is a classic feel-good screwball
romantic comedy with possibly the oddest of couples which proves that love
comes from the unexpected and that you don’t find it, it finds you.
Overall The
Rosie Project is a very well written, well-researched, engaging, charming, funny,
affectionate and intelligent novel with plenty of
local flavour being set in Melbourne that makes for a very enjoyable read.
I also felt an
understanding with Don because I have Aspergers myself and found it endearing
to have someone like him because I feel there aren’t enough characters in media
in general so it made for a refreshing change and for that alone, The Rosie
Project holds a special place in my library as well as my top three.
The Rosie
Project is available in paperback, hardback, e-book formats, audiobook, Audio
CD, and CD-ROM.
The sequel titled The Rosie Effect is set for release next month on September 24th.
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