The Rosie Project

Bill Gates was right about this book. He read it overnight, and I took just over a day to complete it, in stark contrast to my previous struggle with the magic realism of Mr. Fox. It is a fabulous read that is hard to put down, with a thoroughly engaging protagonist.

Everyone is going to love Graeme Simsion's Don Tillman,  a Professor of Genetics, pushing forty, who has everything scheduled and spreadsheeted in his life, but who is still in want of a wife. Don knows he is different, (his behaviour is typical of someone with Asperger's Syndrome), and that it is always going to be difficult for someone like him to find a life-partner, so he decides to initiate "The Wife Project". He devises a questionnaire to sift out time-wasters, and find his ideal woman, helped by his closest friend and colleague Gene, and Gene's long-suffering wife Claudia.

Things take a comic turn when Rosie fills in his questionnaire, and eliminates herself immediately from the running by virtue of being both a smoker AND a vegetarian. This is when the real fun begins! Although Don knows that Rosie doesn't fit the bill, nevertheless he just can't stop seeing her, ostensibly to help her in the search for her real father.

There are several laugh-out-loud moments in this novel, and some simply brilliant one-liners from Don, who is unable to pick up on the social cues that most of us process straightforwardly. Although he may be socially inept and gaffe-prone, being ASD has given him amazing gifts of organisation, focus and memory, which he is able to use to his advantage. His star turn as a cocktail waiter was one of the most hilarious episodes in the book. As he expertly took orders and served up Alabama Slammers, Rob Roys and Martinis, (whilst surreptiously swabbing empties for DNA), I wanted to punch the air and celebrate the triumph of a nerdy Geneticist over the smug, successful, professional customers he was serving.

Love is, of course, not an exact science, with precise ingredients like a cocktail, and the joy of this novel is watching Don's rigid schedule bend to accommodate another person, without him really realising why. He deserves to find love, but can a man who can recognise a DNA match, find the love of his life through a questionnaire, or will life be a little more inventive and romantic?