The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
This second of Graeme Simsion’s Rosie books portrays the twists and turns of love and marriage with humour, poignancy, and breathtaking plot reversals. Don. a professor of genetics, is super intelligent but his lack of understanding of social rules knows few bounds. Rosie, who is earning a PhD in psychology, has some issues with men. Supporting characters are equally interesting.
Don’s naive narration provides a window on the daily challenges faced by couples with vastly different inner lives. His honesty, kindness and integrity charm the reader, even as his well-meaning fumbles frequently cause us to want to shake him. Is Don autistic? Even if he is, does the label matter?
When Don is In his normal state, others bemoan his failure to show (or even feel) socially sanctioned emotions at appropriate times. Mostly, he remains calm and analytical. Even when irrationally attacked, he’s careful to injure neither the pugilist, but simply uses his skill at Aikido to protect himself by temporarily disabling his opponent.
Even when his system gets overloaded with input, he is well aware of the danger of “having a meltdown.” Accordingly, he has a technique for this too. He tries to get away and calm down. If that is impossible, he consciously calms his breathing, repeating his well-chosen personal mantra, Hardy Ramanujan.
At the same time, the interactions between Don and Rosie reveal the ups and downs that are bound to occur in any long marriage. The quagmire of misunderstanding between them is by turns poignant and hilarious. When problems pile up, a pregnant Rosie gets overwhelmed more easily than usual. To ensure that her stress and thus her cortisol levels remain low, Don witholds several serious matters. When the problems become too numerous, he simply goes away to think, confident that he can devise a single elegant solution to the “the Gordian knot” of problems.
Both optimistic and comedic, this novel portrays the lengths to which a conscientious person will go, in friendship, and in love, to learn and grow, as well as to help others. Painfully aware that his social deficiencies are as extreme as his intellectual gifts, Don makes supreme though often bungling efforts to help his friends and support his partner. Having once suffered from deep depression himself, Don is able to recognize it in a friend’s son. Knowing the moment is critical, he cancels a special dinner with Rosie, even knowing the consequences to his already fragile marriage may be dire. With a life at stake, he feels he has no choice but to go into full problem-solving mode to save the life of the young man.
Don and Rosie are an unusual couple, but Simsion’s deceptively lighthearred storytelling reveals profound truths. Readers glimpse what society and marriage ask of us, what’s important in life, what we unreasonably expect of our partners. Simsion makes us laugh while his story raises our awareness of these important matters.