Book Review: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project: What it is about

From the publishers: “Don Tillman is a socially challenged genetics professor who’s decided the time has come to find a wife. His questionnaire is intended to weed out anyone who’s unsuitable. The trouble is, Don has rather high standards and doesn’t really do flexible so, despite lots of takers, he’s not having much success in identifying The One.

When Rosie Jarman comes to his office, Don assumes it’s to apply for the Wife Project – and duly discounts her on the grounds she smokes, drinks, doesn’t eat meat, and is incapable of punctuality. However, Rosie has no interest in becoming Mrs Tillman and is actually there to enlist Don’s assistance in a professional capacity: to help her find her biological father.

Sometimes, though, you don’t find love: love finds you…“

The Rosie Project: What I thought

Don Tillman really wants a wife, and the best way to get one is to target his dating on women that qualify as possible wives. His questionnaire rules out many women, if not all. He meets Rosie through a friend of his, and she certainly doesn’t qualify. He helps her find out who her father is and enjoys her company. If only she were wife material!

I loved reading this book. It was obvious, very obvious, which way this story was going, but chances were that Don had missed the window of opportunity with Rosie. I liked it that there was a second story line, in some ways totally unrelated to the wife-finding quest, in which Rosie was looking for her father. Or really, Don is is the one pursuing this goal, because he so much enjoys being in Rosie’s company.

At the end of the book, it’s Don rather than Rosie who makes concessions, but is it too late? And who IS Rosie’s real father? I had problems understanding who her father was, it wasn’t made very clear. In my book group we discussed this and some others also weren’t sure who it was. One or two people also had issues with the last chapter, when everything went really fast and maybe a little unbelievable. But most of the story was good fun.

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (good to very good)

Number of pages: 288

First published: 2013

I got this: bought it in my local book store

Genre: contemporary fiction