Dear Readers:
I'm beyond thrilled to have Graeme Simsion on my blog for an interview, as his novel The Rosie Project is my favorite read so far this year! As you all know, I used to have this blog exclusively for young adult reads, but recently opened it up to adult books. Boy, am I glad because I got to find absolute gems like this book!
Goodreads Book Description: An international
sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly
charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest:
to find out if he is capable of true love.
Don Tillman,
professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who
can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong
difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not
wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would
make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must
concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for
everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly,
evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out
to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most
definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.
Yet
Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery,
intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological
father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her
with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and
an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded
geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the
realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.
The Rosie Project
is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously
gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.
My Rating: 5 Couches!
My Review:
I won this book last year
from Dubray Books, and I'm only sorry it's taken me this long to review
it. After reading and reviewing a bunch of okay books, this one
completely took me by surprise and blew me away in the best way
possible.
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion stars Don Tillman,
a professor of genetics, who has difficulty relating to other people
and appears to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum with OCD
tendencies. This book is entirely in his perspective in first person and
gives us a very entertaining as well as moving account in the head of
someone like that. Don is striving to learn the skills to find the
perfect woman and even comes up with a very detailed questionnaire to do
so. But then he meets Rosie, his polar opposite, and she turns his very
regimented world upside down. Can he figure out what he really wants
and how/if he should change?
I loved this book from start to
finish. We get the dry and very detailed account of how he sets up his
day from the first pages. I've read some negative reviews that pan the
book on this aspect, but these pages are vital to set up the character
and reveal a very unique viewpoint that has rarely been attempted
before. It was a risky move, but one that I believe completely pays off.
Don
is such a great character-- and while he does have these strange quirks
and difficulties relating to other people, it's fascinating to see him
dissect each interaction and what he gets out of it. Sometimes he's
completely wrong, and sometimes, he's way more perceptive than others
around him who are clouded by their emotions. I love how Simsion makes
him so likeable even when his behaviors come off negatively and even
maliciously to others around him. Rosie is also wonderful and provides a
great counterpoint to Don's rigidity. Side plots include his best
friend Gene who is sex-crazed and has an "open" relationship with his
wife.
I just couldn't see how realistically Don could change and
how he and Rosie could have any interactions that would bring him
together. But the way Simsion masterfully does this pulls the whole
story together and it ends in the only way it can.
Overall,
brilliantly written, unique, funny and equal parts moving (to the point
this reader was bawling her eyes out at the end), and probably the best
book I've read this year. A must read. Everyone should go out and buy it
now.
About Graeme:
GRAEME SIMSION is a former information technology and
business consultant who decided to re-invent himself as a screenwriter.
Somewhere along the way, he became a novelist instead. The Rosie Project is his first book. A sequel, The Rosie Effect, will be published later this year. Graeme lives
in Melbourne, Australia.
Author Interview
1.
I know this book started out as a screenplay. Can you tell us a little about
the development of the story and how you decided to make it a book?
In 2007, I enrolled in a screenwriting program and decided I needed a story to
work on – so I would get immediate practice in applying what I was learning. I
settled on a story inspired by a good friend of mine who had struggled for many
years to find a partner. I ‘workshopped’ it verbally with my partner over
several days hiking in New Zealand, and by the time I began the screenwriting
program, I had a solid outline. It was a drama, the love interest was a geeky
Hungarian physicist named Klara, and it was called, pretentiously, The Face of God. I had a lot still to
learn.
I worked on the script for five years, and it changed hugely as I learned the
craft. After two and a half years, I threw most of it away, keeping only the
character of Don Tillman (though I changed his job from physicist to
geneticist) and the jacket incident. I rewrote it with a much stronger female
character (inventing Rosie was the toughest job), plus the father project
subplot and new supporting characters.
In 2012, having found a producer but no money, I decided to re-imagine the
story as a novel. There was a practical aspect to my decision: it’s easier to
publish a novel than to fund a movie. But I had also had a good basis for
fulfilling a lifetime ambition to write a novel. Novels are generally a better
vehicle for dealing with a character’s inner world, and I found I was able to
develop Don’s character more fully and also introduce observational humor that
was not possible in the screenplay.
2. I'm fascinated by your main character, Don Tillman. Can you tell us how you
decided for him to be your main character and to write the book in first
person?
Don
was always the main character. The Rosie
Project and its earlier incarnations have always been about Don and his
world-view, and the story and supporting characters have been a vehicle for
interrogating them. I believe that good stories grow out of character, and that
‘voice’ is critical to telling them well. Don gave me both of those elements.
He’s a type of person familiar to many of us, but not well represented in
literature, perhaps because there are not many Dons in the literary world. My
previous life in information technology served me well here.
I
decided to write in first person to make the most of Don’s voice, and to take
advantage of the insight and humor that an unreliable narrator can bring. The
reader has to do a little work – deciding how to interpret what Don says – but
in doing so, he or she learns more of how Don’s mind works.
3.
Your other characters were just as colorful. Did any of your characters
surprise you-- who and which one?
Not
really. I felt I was always in control of the main characters. Claudia gave me
the most problems in portrayal: I saw her as a strong woman with conflicted
feelings about Gene – someone who had signed up for an open marriage but had
grown out of it. But some readers are always going to see a woman who tolerates
infidelity as weak. It’s a difficult topic to play with – people have strong
conditioned reactions which are less predictable than (say) their take on Don.
One
minor character who developed without any effort from me was the Dean. She had
a job to do in the book, but quietly took on a personality of her own and a
slightly bigger role. Most of my readers have sympathy for the Dean, but I had
one academic reader (who has Asperger’s Syndrome) who wrote me that he found
her despicable.
4.
If Don could become friends with someone from another book, movie or show, who
would it be and why?
Not Sheldon
Cooper from The Big Bang Theory!
Readers regularly say that reading The
Rosie Project is like being in Sheldon’s head – there’s some truth in this,
but they’re missing the differences (we need more aspies in literature so we
start seeing beyond the similarities). And look what happened with the Apricot
Ice Cream Disaster. Two rigid people need only a small point of difference to
fall out.
I’m going for Dr. David Huxley, Cary Grant’s character in Bringing Up Baby. They could happily talk shop – a paleontologist
and a geneticist will find plenty of interest – and commiserate about their
crazy partners.
5.
What authors have inspired you and in what way?
Many,
many authors, at different times of my life. I sometimes go back to authors I
loved even just a few year ago and find my tastes have moved on, but can’t deny
their influence. Everyone my age has been influenced by Hemingway, directly or
indirectly, just as every singer-songwriter has been influenced by Dylan. I
read a lot of science fiction as a teenager, and in those days the high concept
was king, with plot a close second. John Irving’s slightly heightened
characters and situations probably influenced the tone of Rosie. And I read many
authors whose influence is probably not visible in my work. John Mortimer is
probably as close to a role model as I’ve found – interspersing more serious
fiction and memoir with his Rumpole of
the Bailey series.
6.
Can you tell my readers a little about the editing process and how having a
different set of eyes helped you write this book?
I
used to be a consultant and I learned a lot about giving and taking advice (in
fact I supported myself through the screenwriting program by giving seminars on
consulting skills). So I have a strong appreciation of the value of advice and
collaboration. I had great input from my teachers and my writing group when Rosie was a screenplay, then from
trusted readers and my editors at Text Publishing in Australia and Simon &
Schuster in the US.
Outsiders
are, in my experience, astute at pointing out problems that you can’t see
yourself, but much less valuable in offering solutions (though they can
contribute to a collaborative process). The typical editor’s comment says “This
is not working – I suggest you do this.” The first part is helpful, the second
generally not!
7.
I hear you have a sequel to The Rosie
Project coming out later this year. Can you tell us a little bit about it
without giving anything away?
You
hear right, though “later this year” applies to Australia. Publication dates in
other countries have not been announced yet. Don’s life is not over at the end
of The Rosie Project. In The Rosie Effect, Don faces a new set of
challenges which he addresses in his unique way.
And now, wonderful readers, enter for the chance to win a signed copy of The Rosie Project -- this is an INTERNATIONAL giveaway! Thanks so much to Simon and Schuster for providing this chance, especially to those abroad.
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Hey, gang! I'm so excited to promote the next book in the Super Sweet series by Rachel Harris. Rachel is one of the sweetest authors I've ever interacted with, and she also writes really terrific swoon worthy books! This one is no exception!
