Why I loved "The Rosie Project"

My thoughts on: “The Rosie Project” by Graeme Simsion.

I like to start with a simple way to describe books. In the case of The Rosie Project, it was gorgeous. Not in a beauty-related or heartfelt type of way but in a… unique-perspective kind of way.

Don Tillman is the main character and the book is written in first person, you are inside his head, reading his weird geeky non-emotional thoughts. This gave the book such a unique perspective. Don sees the world under a totally different light than most of us.

You need a jacket to go a fancy restaurant? Why not go with your yellow reflective bike jacket? That’s, by definition, a jacket, right? Right?

Don is a geneticist professor and researcher with Asperger Syndrome. This makes him view the world in such peculiar way; one that is not dictated by  emotions but logic, something alien to the vast majority of us. We’re just a bunch of chemically unstable people.

A person who has Asperger syndrome may not fit in well with other people, and may be unable to act like everyone else in different social situations —Wikipedia

The book is engaging from the very beginning and reminded me strongly of “Flowers For Algernom”, another beautiful story. Don is such an appealing character even though he doesn’t like people himself. He finds weird to let yourself go with emotions over logic. Not to mention he can remember almost everything he intends to remember. God I hope I had this ability.

The story is based on a simple idea: Don wants to find a partner. Which is haaard because he’s a… hmm, unusual individual. Quite a special guy. He’s awkward when it comes to being social and defies all possible standards. As Don’s put it:—

I am thirty-nine years old, tall, fit, and intelligent with a relatively high status and above average income as an associate professor. Logically, I should be attractive to a wide range of women. In the animal kingdom, I would succeed in reproducing.

However, there is something about me that women find unappealing. I have never found it easy to make friends, and it seems the deficiencies that caused this problem have also affected my attempts at romantic relationships.

That’s when he has an epiphany and creates “The Wife Project”, a questionnaire to help him find the perfect woman for him. Sounds crazy? It is.

Without spoiling anything. He meets Rosie, a troubled 29 years old sexy woman who ends up driving him “crazy” or to what we all call the every day life. Emotions start to flow like a waterfall and Don needs to deal with all this, while trying to figure out who’s the father of Rosie; the reason they hang out together in the first place.

This is a romantic-comedy. It made me and my girlfriend laugh so much while keeping itself super interesting by not being the classic romantic story of falling in love.

I really enjoyed the book and found no reason not to. The end is quite good as well and different from what I was expecting throughout half the book, which made me happy.

Thumbs up! I’m looking forward reading the second one in the series: “The Rosie Effect”.