"The Rosie Project" Should Of Been A Movie Project

The 2013 bestseller "The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simson is a breezy read. Don Tillman is basically a middle aged Sheldon Cooper. He has Asperger's syndrome, works at a university and hardly gets everything going by him. He's even described as tall, and looks and sounds like Sheldon Cooper. He also narrates the book. The story starts with his friend Gene deciding to help get him a wife, and Don creates a checklist, put together like a scientific paper, to figure out a formula to get him a wife and how to figure out women. Don ends up finding romance with a way younger woman who's really attractive. I mean, it's a bit of a male fantasy to think this woman would throw herself at Don, but this isn't going to win any literary prizes and who knows? Maybe it isn't that much of a reach.

 

It's also really a mystery why this was never made into anything for a screen. His friend Gene is a perfect example of why it's baffling this novel was never made into anything for a  Gene, love basically means getting his friend laid. Gene is basically a sitcom stock character off a CBS multi cam sitcom, like Barney Stinson or Charlie Harper. Yet, the book feels more like a ABC single camera sitcom made to appeal to a female viewership. The fact this book was never made into anything, like a sitcom or a movie is baffling. This would been a great project at the height of nerd TV like "The Big Bang Theory". It was a well reviewed national bestseller, with two squeals to boot which I actually read. 

What the reader should know is this book actually started out as a screenplay and it shows. Every cliched detail down to the insanely attractive and younger women trying to make Don into her husband material screams MOVIE. That actually works though for the readability of the book. As I said, breezy is the perfect way to describe the writing. It's also funny. 

 It's basically a chick lit novel for socially awkward guys and women who want a guy and women who dream of having a socially awkward guy they can make into good husbands. These kind of guys are already half way there anyway. Their hobbies can still be done when married, and they aren't going to be longing for their fun single days because they didn't happen. 

 It is a new category of chick lit. Women who dream of an ultimately nerdy and intelligent but also inoffensive guy they can meld into their dream man. There's a 98% Don is never going to leave you either. Believe me, I even get it. You girls want a man who can be whipped? Get a nerd. Hell, send me an e-mail. I'll send you my number. 

 It can work both ways as a bit of a fantasy, both male and female, which makes the book unusual in a way. Both male and female readers can enjoy an equal amount of peasant reading and eye rolling at times. It's not going to win any literary prizes, but it's a fun read. The part of the book that really works is watching these two people figure out each other, making each other into what they want. Three stars.