{"id":32150,"date":"2013-04-19T17:16:59","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T07:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=32150"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:46:13","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:46:13","slug":"the-rosie-project-an-autism-mums-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2013\/04\/19\/the-rosie-project-an-autism-mums-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rosie Project \u2014 An Autism Mum\u2019s Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rosie Project has been a publishing phenomenon, melting the hearts of readers everywhere with its unconventional love story. Benison O’Reilly, the\u00a0co-author of The Australian Autism Handbook<\/em>, casts an informed eye over the bestseller from Graeme Simsion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Rosie Project<\/i> \u2014 a debut novel sold to over 30 countries and welcomed with seemingly universal glowing reviews. We could hardly forgive its author, Graeme Simsion, if not for the fact he\u2019s in his 50s and has written such a beguiling book.<\/p>\n

For the unenlightened, The Rosie Project<\/i><\/a> tells the story of Don Tillman, a 39-year old professor of genetics, who\u2019s been less than successful in love. Tired of leaving things to chance, he embarks on The Wife Project, designing a 16-page \u2018best practice\u2019 questionnaire to help him find the perfect mate. Into his life enters Rosie Jarman. She\u2019s a thoroughly unsuitable candidate for The Wife Project, but is on a quest to find her biological father and Don, with his knowledge of genetics, is perfectly equipped to help. We know that Don and Rosie will end up together, although predictably their romance faces several obstacles along the way.<\/p>\n

What makes their romance different is that Don has Asperger\u2019s syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism.<\/p>\n

Novels based around characters with Asperger\u2019s are hardly new; Mark Haddon\u2019s award-winning The<\/i> Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time<\/i><\/a> is the best known example. But a romance where the central character has Asperger\u2019s \u2014 well, that\u2019s more of a leap.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Benison O’Reilly<\/p><\/div>\n

For me the interest was personal; my youngest son is on the autism spectrum. Could Simsion produce a convincing portrait of Don, cast him as the romantic hero, yet still capture his Aspergian essence? The answer, it turns out, is yes.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019s quirks are a major source of humour in the book, particularly the legendary ability of folks on the spectrum to \u2018call a spade a spade\u2019. Somehow, however, we\u2019re never laughing at<\/i> Don, probably because the book is written in the first-person. Once we start seeing the world through Don\u2019s eyes it\u2019s almost impossible not get drawn into his particular brand of logic.<\/p>\n

When an opportunity arises for Don to have sex with Rosie he approaches the challenge in a typically systematic way. He procures a book about sexual positions and starts practising in his office, with help of a skeleton on loan from the Anatomy Department. This encounter of Don\u2019s with best friend Gene was one of many laugh-out-loud moments:<\/p>\n

\u2018So why the stress?\u2019 said Gene. \u2018You have had sex before?\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018Of course,\u2019 I said. \u2018My doctor is strongly in favour.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018Frontiers of medical science,\u2019 said Gene.<\/i><\/p>\n

He was probably making a joke. I think the value of regular sex has been known for some time.<\/i><\/p>\n

I explained further. \u2018It\u2019s just that adding a second person makes it more complicated.\u2019 <\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Yet, two-thirds into the book I became anxious. Firstly that, for the sake of the comedy, Simsion might choose to sanitise the reality of Asperger\u2019s, to gloss over the very real challenges that individuals on the spectrum have to face.\u00a0 But on that count he didn\u2019t disappoint. He alluded, realistically, to darker time in Don\u2019s life, treatment for a mental health condition in his early twenties.<\/p>\n

Then, near the end, when Don bought some new clothes and refined his social skills, I worried that he was somehow going to lose his Aspie-ness. Relax! It turned out Don was just playing a part to win over Rosie \u2014 he remained at heart the same old Don. Again, this is accurate. In maturity many individuals with high-functioning autism learn to fake it. They observe and imitate us \u2018neurotypicals\u2019 because it makes it easier to fit in, not because our behaviour actually makes much sense.<\/p>\n

Rosie falls in love with Don because he offers stability, fidelity and kindness, and (after the makeover) a passing resemblance to Gregory Peck. When it comes to finding a mate you could definitely do worse.<\/p>\n

But then I suppose I\u2019m biased.<\/p>\n

Click here to buy The Rosie Project<\/em> from Booktopia,<\/strong><\/a>
\nAustralia’s Local Bookstore<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

Benison O\u2019Reilly is the co-author of The Australian Autism Handbook. A new edition of the bestselling Handbook was released this month. You can follow her on twitter here<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here to buy the latest edition of Benison’s The Australian Autism Handbook<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rosie Project has been a publishing phenomenon, melting the hearts of readers everywhere with its unconventional love story. Benison O’Reilly, the\u00a0co-author of The Australian Autism Handbook, casts an informed eye over the bestseller from Graeme Simsion. The Rosie Project \u2014 a debut novel sold to over 30 countries and welcomed with seemingly universal glowing reviews. We could hardly forgive its author, Graeme Simsion, if not for the fact he\u2019s in his 50s and has written such a beguiling book. For the unenlightened, The Rosie Project tells the story of Don Tillman, a 39-year old professor of genetics, who\u2019s been less than successful in love. Tired of leaving things to chance, he embarks on The Wife Project, designing a 16-page \u2018best practice\u2019 questionnaire to help him find the perfect mate. Into his life enters Rosie Jarman. She\u2019s a thoroughly unsuitable candidate for The Wife Project, but is on a quest to find her biological father and Don, with his knowledge of genetics, is perfectly equipped to help. We know that Don and Rosie will end up together, although predictably their romance faces several obstacles along the way. What makes their romance different is that Don has Asperger\u2019s syndrome, a form…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4,9,24],"tags":[868,2265,5268,5896],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56921,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32150\/revisions\/56921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}