Relishing different takes on the world

The Rosie Project
Graeme Simsion
US: Simon and Schuster, 2013
Pp. 295
 

Big parts of this novel are simply hilarious but that does not mean it is frivolous. Both the humour and the important thoughts in “The Rosie Project” stem mainly from the unique take on the world of the main character and narrator, Don Tillman. Don is a genetics professor at a university in Melbourne, Australia. As the story opens, he gives a lecture on the genetic aspect of Asperger’s syndrome, the mildest form of autism. Soon, one realises that he could have spoken from a more personal angle.  

Don’s social awkwardness, emotional paucity and rigidity, combined with his phenomenal memory and scientific career, place him in the Asperger’s category, though author Graeme Simsion doesn’t label him outright. Being unable to interpret people’s facial expressions, or understand jokes and idiomatic speech, Don doesn’t fit in; he has few friends, and often responds inappropriately and lands in awkward situations.

Some of his interpretations and reactions to other people’s words are truly funny, and one will laugh out loud, but also pause to think: What do people really mean with the phrases they reel off? What do they really want with their social interaction? 

The Rosie Project is the last of many projects which Don undertakes. It all starts with the Wife Project, based on a meticulous, 32-page questionnaire designed to be circulated over dating sites, in order to weed out unsuitable women and lead him to the perfect life partner. Looking for a mate in this way is part of his obsession with charting his life according to logic, rather than instincts or emotions, but when Rosie walks in, his rigorously observed daily schedule and usual rules are overturned.

For the first time, a woman gives him her phone number and says to call her, causing him to think, “I had temporarily been included in a culture that I considered close to me… Another world, another life, proximate but inaccessible.” (pp. 72 and 95)

Rosie is a stunning redhead, a psychology graduate student who presents herself as a bartender (her part-time job). Don thinks she is applying to the Wife Project, but she was sent by a mutual friend to make Don have some fun. So, from the start, they are at cross purposes — he finding her totally unsuitable because she smokes, is always late, and other faults; she wondering at his Wife Project-related references. 

Their interaction is odd but not only because of Don’s idiosyncrasies; Rosie is also off-beat. When Don discovers that her bad relationship to her father, and her belief that he is not her real father, are causing her much mental distress, he offers to help her find her real parent via genetic research. In total denial as to how attractive he finds her, he justifies his new project as a scientific pursuit. 

Thus begins the Father Project, a series of charades and escapades aimed at obtaining DNA samples from over 100 doctors who were in Rosie’s now dead mother’s graduating class. The project includes Don becoming a quite successful bartender at these doctors’ class reunion, and Don and Rosie travelling to New York together to track down other suspects. Their search adds another layer to the suspense already building as to where Don’s and Rosie’s relationship is heading. 

As different “father” candidates are eliminated, so too Don eliminates many of his presuppositions about bartenders, sports enthusiasts and other types of people he thought he had nothing in common with, as well as what things he could enjoy doing. A subtheme of the novel is gently ridiculing the pretensions of academics, while the trip to New York offers an opportunity to laugh at the American penchant for superlatives as Don and Rosie eat the World’s Best Breakfast and the World’s Best Pizza, and peruse the World’s Longest Cocktail List, etc.

But feelings remain the sticking point. It is unclear to the end if Don can overcome his inability to trust and articulate his feelings. What is very clear, however, are the advantages of throwing conventions to the wind, of having fun and trying new things, of not only recognising but relishing individual differences, and of accepting others as they are. This is the first novel for Australian author Gaeme Simsion, and he delivers a fast-paced, funny story, full of well-developed, quirky characters, credible dialogue and original insights.

“The Rosie Project” is available at Readers/Cozmo Centre.