Book Review - The Rosie Project
Wellcome to to Vanya’s Book Club Weekend!
This is my very first book review and I am excited!!
If you haven’t already heard I recently started a book club with my girlfriends. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time (years) but never found the right time.
I love the idea of a book club because you get the motivation to keep reading and then there is the social gathering to celebrate.
If you have been thinking about starting or joining one you can read up about it in my post “How to start a book club?”
The first book we read in our book club was “The Rosie Project” and so begins my first review.
*Ilustration courtesy of Text Publising
The Rosie Project is the first novel written by the Melbourne based write Graeme Simsion. If I had to describe the genre I’d say a comedic romance novel (if that description even exists).
Synopsis
“I may have found a solution to the Wife Problem” is the first sentence of the book and that pretty much sets the scene. The story is about Don Tillman, a highly intelligent university professor, who by his own admission is slightly inapt in social occasions.
Don has made the decision to find him self a wife and so creates a sixteen page questionnaire, which he distributes to all women he meets in the hope that one of them will succeed in answering all the questions “correctly” and thus will be his perfects match. It’s all really a matter of science!
In the meant time he meats Rosi Jarman who is his polar opposite, but also very intelligent, beautiful and fiery. She too is on a quest, her’s however is to find her biological father. This is a search that Don can actually help her with, seen as he is the highly acclaimed genetics professor and has access to the university labs.
Through the wife project Don learns, that you can listen to music for musics sake, the price of the jacket doesn’t define it’s prestige and that love isn’t a series of logical conclusions.
Review
This is one of the funniest books I have EVER read!!
I read this book while feeding Charlie or putting him to sleep and every time without fail I was crying from laughter while trying to keep it all in so I would not stir the baby.
The story is written from Don’s point of view and it successfully conveys a clear picture of Don, his surroundings and his perceived surroundings. For an extremely intelligent and calculating person Don is so oblivious to his own condition that you can not help but feel empathy and a real fervour for his success in finding the perfect wife. Not the one he is looking for in his questionnaire but his true love.
I am actually impressed with the thought process and calculations that go through is mind on why some things is valid or not. The “Standardised Meal System” being a perfect example:
No need to accumulate recipe books
Standard shopping list - hence very efficient shopping
Almost zero waste - nothing in the refrigerator or pantry unless required for one of the recipes
Diet planned and nutritionally balanced in advance
No time wasted wondering what to cook
No mistakes, no unpleasant surprises
Excellent food, superior to most restaurants at a much lower price (see point 3)
Minimal cognitive load required - The cooking procedures are in my cerebellum - virtually no conscious effort is required
As for what is my favourite part of the book?!? It is impossible to pick one, as I truly laughed and was moved by every page.
But my ‘most laughed’ section (cos I woke Charlie up) was Chapter six - The Jacket incident.
After Don is asked to put on a dinner Jacket as this was a formal place (dinner jacket available form restaurant), he is utterly confused how this borrowed dinner jacket is better then the more superior one he has on:
“My Gore-Tex jacket, the high-technology garment that had protected me in rain and snowstorms, was being, irrationally, unfairly and obstructively contrasted with the official’s essentially decorative woollen equivalent. I had paid $1015 for it, including the $120 extra for the customised reflective yellow.” …… To fond out how this laugh out loud scene finished you will HAVE to read the book.
I give this book 5 out of 5 starts.
In reading this book I can honestly say that I see a bit of Don in me and in some of my own friends!
How many of us haven’t made a secret list of the person we’d like to meet? What they should look like, do for work, like to eat or are like in a social occasion?
I most certainly had a list of what I wanted in a partner. I think more people should!
I sincerely hope you read The Rosie Project, you will not be sorry!
If life is a bit tough and you are tired of your own drama then this is the book for you.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the book, so please comment below or tag me in your discussion.