The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)

I came by this book quite by chance. One of my co-workers came and brought it to me and said I should read it. It was my turn to pick the book for our book club and it seemed like a good choice. I wanted to pick a romance of sorts. I chose this one because it isn't a mushy Nicholas Sparks book, but rather, a funny odd story of finding love.

In the end it made for a really great book club discussion. One of the ladies in our book club also bought the second book and had started it, but she didn't have very good reviews. She tried to pawn it off on anyone that would take it. In the end, she went home with it.

I looked up the author. He has quite an online presence: twitter, Ted talks, website, even the main character, Don Tillman, has a twitter account. He seems a lot like Don Tillman - an (pompous?) intellectual who seems a little abrasive and dull in interviews. It's his first fiction book. He claims to have written it in a short time. It has been translated into 30 languages and is to be made into a movie.

Perhaps it's his huge success that brings out my negativity. I'm jealous!

I quite enjoyed the main character. It never says in the book that he has aspergers or autism - but it sure sounds like he does. He is quirky and funny and reminds me of quite a few people I know! I have a feeling there's a few "spectrum types" in my family....or maybe there's just a bit of Don Tillman in me. I don't know. All I know is I found his matter of fact logic quite hilarious:

p. 291 It was a very reasonable explanation. I wished Rosie had provided this background information prior to me holding her stepfather's head on the floor with blood pouring out from his nose.

Goodreads summary:

An international sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love.

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

          The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously
         gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.