The Rosie Project will blind you with science.
Wow! There is good reason why this book is an international best seller. It is a fun, enjoyable and amusing book full of heart. It is the perfect laid-back, lazy read; the ideal distraction.
I found myself giggling out loud and relaying lines to my husband so that he could enjoy it as well. I read it while on holiday and absolutely devoured it.
The main character of The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion is Don Tillman, a brilliant scientific mind but a disaster in social situations. If you are familiar with the TV show The Big Bang Theory, think Dr. Sheldon Cooper. I think it was this comparison that made parts of the book so funny.
Don has never had a second date, not for lack of trying but because his standards are too high and inflexible. Don is sick of wasting his precious time and so, in his typically analytic manner, he creates a 16-page questionnaire and an ad that reads: Wife Wanted. Must be punctual, logical, and enjoy travelling by bicycle. No smokers, drinkers or horoscope readers need apply.
Don enters the Wife Project in earnest and tweaks and adjusts his questionnaire along the way as results come in. For example, he changes the drinking question due to it being unjust; he is a drinker himself and doesn’t want to marry a teetotaler, one of the only times that irony is not lost on him.
He also adjusts the punctuality question to allow for (b) a little early as he realizes that watches can be out of sync and that it would be a more desirable response than (d) a little late and (e) very late which would both be totally unacceptable.
While Don continues with his quest to find the perfect woman, he is introduced by his best friend Gene to Rosie, a sarcastic waitress and possible candidate who would undoubtedly fail almost all the answers on the test. Don is confused but agrees to meet Rosie out of social convention.
Rosie is on a quest of her own. She is looking for her birth father, a search that a certain genetics expert might just be able to help her with. Don puts the Wife Project on the back burner as Rosie is a totally unacceptable applicant and decides to help Rosie with her search. Through a series of quirky and comical encounters a relationship blooms and Don starts to figure out that while everything else in his life can be planned and programmed, love and personal relationships are meant to be confusing and surprising. Despite the best scientific efforts, you don’t always find love, sometimes love finds you. This novel is a superb expression on our need for companionship and identity. 3.5/5
