This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project is not only captivating but also entertaining and informative. Simsion allows the reader to perceive the world through the eyes of Don Tillerman, a very intelligent, middle-aged genetics professor who finds social interaction difficult and intense emotion overwhelming.
The Rosie Project follows Don’s organised-to-the-minute-detail quest for a wife in creating a ‘compatibility questionnaire’. Enter Rosie, ‘the world’s most incompatible woman’, who subsequently throws Don’s quiet, ordered life into chaos in her own quest for her biological father.
It is Don’s utterly honest and direct nature which provokes humour as well as an endearing and poignant undertone to the plot. Being rooted in Don’s mind, the reader grows to like the comforting structure of his life and consequently feels the uncertainty and confusion when his world is dominated by a strange, unsuited woman. It is being completely submerged in another person’s mind which I enjoyed so much about The Rosie Project.
Although there is no explicit description of Don having Autism or Asperger’s, it is hinted at heavily throughout the novel and the reader does wonder whether someone with such a need for schedule and organisation is able to relax out of a routine through the subtle input of another. In spite of this, the character development in correlation to the plot is convincing and the ending, as a result, satisfying.
I found this novel an enjoyable read; well written, thought provoking and highly entertaining – perfect summer reading.
Thanks go to Anna Price who kindly reviewed this book for The CountryWives.