Yvette Carol, Author

I have finished reading my fourteenth novel for 2023, The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion. I had heard only good things about this book, so when I saw it for sale in a secondhand book shop I snapped it up. I attended a writing workshop with Graeme Simsion in August last year. An Australian author born in New Zealand, Simsion had worked as an information systems consultant, co-authoring the book Data Modelling Essentials, and worked in wine distribution before turning professional writer.

He told us that the success of The Rosie Project and subsequent books had seen him change careers. He opened the workshop with the words, “What I want you to have is what I have. When I get up in the morning, I know what I’m going to do, and I make serious progress on my novel by the end of each day.” Simsion’s new book The Novel Project was a non-fiction guide giving step-by-step instructions on how to write a book. He taught us a condensed version of what was entailed. Since then, I have presented not one but two speeches to my Toastmasters club on how to write books, based on his guidelines, and written blog posts on the subject, see Step by Step, More Step by Step, and Even More Step by Step. I think Simsion is the boss. End of.
But would I like his award-winning debut novel? That was the question.

I went into the story blind – not knowing what it was about and not having read the blurb. From the first page, I could see it was going to be a romance – and I have not willingly read a romance since I was a thirteen-year-old reading Mills & Boon – I thought, Uh-oh, do I retreat? But what kept me reading was the protagonist. He intrigued me. Genetics professor Don Tillman struggles to have serious relationships with women. After devising a questionnaire to assess the suitability of female partners, termed The Wife Project, he starts figuring out how to get women to answer the questions. ‘On Claudia’s advice, I memorized the questionnaire. She thought that asking questions directly from the forms could create the wrong dynamic and that I should attempt to incorporate them subtly into the conversation. Subtlety, I reminded her, is not my strength.’ The story premise was straightforward, but it was Don’s nerdy yet self-aware narration that hooked me. Quirky, unexpected, left-of-center, verging on anal, earnest, and innocent. On the first page, when Don is asked to fill in for a friend to give a lecture, he muses, ‘The timing was extremely annoying. The preparation could be time-shared with lunch consumption, but on the designated evening I had scheduled ninety-four minutes to clean my bathroom.’ Therefore, from the first page, an awkward character like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory immediately sprang to mind, neurologically diverse and fiercely intelligent. I read from that page with burning curiosity. How was Simsion going to show this special character’s way of thinking? How was he going to show Don’s development and his progress from stick-in-the-mud to someone capable of forming a love relationship? I had to know.

Don meets Rosie, who does not fit any of Tillman’s criteria – they both agree they’re not suited. He continues to pursue the ill-fated Wife Project with hilarious results. The humour was another fab thing about this book that kept me reading. Don’s emotionless clinical analysis of each dating situation is a riot. But The Wife Project quickly becomes replaced in his focus by The Father Project as Don becomes drawn into helping Rosie find her biological father. Then, as we nurture hope they’ll get together, this morphs into The Rosie Project. The process of realization that Don loves Rosie dawns on him gradually, and they only come together toward the end. His evolution from pent-up nerd to slightly less pent-up but now more vulnerable and willing-to-learn boyfriend is utterly believable. That he has to throw the entire questionnaire out the window – Rosie does not fit any of his ideal wife criteria – is just part of the charm and believability of the story arc. Even then, it’s not a perfect love match, but that also adds to credibility. I finished the book with my original hypothesis confirmed – Simsion is the boss.

The Rosie Project – written originally as a screenplay – was published in 2013 and the rights have since been sold in over 40 other countries with international sales of over 3.5 million. It’s no surprise that it has been optioned to Sony Pictures Entertainment. A sequel, titled The Rosie Effect, was published in 2014, followed in 2019 by the third and final book in the trilogy, The Rosie Result.
My rating is four stars

Talk to you later.
Keep reading!
Yvette Carol
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I turned to see him – he was large and angry. To prevent further violence, I was forced to sit on him. “Get the fuck off me, I’ll fucking kill you,” he said. On that basis, it seemed illogical to grant his request. ~ The Rosie Project

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