I finally got around to reading Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project after months of owning the book. If I was not on pain meds with nothing better to do post-wisdom tooth surgery, I probably would have stopped reading within the first few chapters. This book had promise for a funny romance among two academics – one geneticist with Asperger’s and a PhD candidate and bartender. They are opposites in every way. Meticulous and spontaneous. Logical and emotional. As a lover of love stories, I am disappointed to say this book fell short.
The plot is simple and endearing; Don, our main character, sets out in what he calls “The Wife Project,” using highly detailed questionnaires to identify the perfect life partner. Thanks to his friend and co-academic, Don meets Rosie, who throws a wrench in his project. He embarks on a new adventure with her: “The Father Project.” They travel throughout Melbourne and New York to take DNA samples of men Rosie suspects to be her biological father. As Rosie pulls him out of his comfort zone, Don begins “The Rosie Project,” which you may guess, is his plan to win her over.
While there are some funny and charming moments that could have led to the ultimate romance, there were a few downsides hard to overlook.
First, Don’s Asperger’s is barely noted. We assume those around him are aware, but our main character fails to recognize that he is on the spectrum. Maybe Graeme Simsion intended to normalize neurologically atypical individuals. Like every great protagonist, Don has goals and fears, is kind, funny, and perfectly imperfect. However, besides a couple paragraphs on his struggles with psychiatric counseling at a younger age, we get little insight into this part of his identity. The author skirts around the usage of “autism” or “Asperger’s.” I suspect the impact of Don’s story may have been greater if Simsion explicitly acknowledged the characters’ neurological differences to build a more realistic love story, rather than presenting Don’s romantic experiences as occurring despite his atypicalness.
Second, there was not a single BIPOC character – if you exclude the Indian woman who shows up in a sari to a blind date at a bar (as a 20-something Indian woman I can assure you the chances of that happening are slim) or the Muslim professor whose virgin drink Rosie slips alcohol into (with no mention of how disrespectful that is). I am no stranger to an all white rom-com, but I could not connect with any of our protagonists.
The Rosie Project is the first in a larger series, which reviewers claim gets better with each book. Unfortunately, I do not think I will be exploring the next installments.