The fact that this book was actualy an unproduced screenplay first and was then re-written as a novel makes sense and brings this book into focus for me. It’s every rom com with the twist that the starring character appears to be on the autism scale. Don Tillman is a professor and geneticist whose life is micromanaged down to the smallest detail. His take on the world does create a lot of misunderstandings that fuel the humor in the book. In an attempt to find a wife and companion, Don creates the Wife Project and hones a questionnaire that should weed out the unacceptable. You can imagine what kind of trouble a graceless but sincere Don can get in with that. Along comes Rosie, a study in opposites to the extreme and they begin the long road to romance. Even though they are so patently mismatched what keeps them together is the Father Project, wherein Rosie is convinced her dad is not her actual biological father and she asks Don for his help. That plotline keeps them in all manner of crazy and madcap adventures but has an obvious resolution. Even more distressing, is that throughout the majority of the book Don’s otherness is appreciated, even celebrated at times. But by the end, he’s just crammed into every hollywood chick movie trope, changing himself in order to get the girl. That was disappointing, after some of the truly funny and poignant writing earlier in the book. Sad, this could have really broken from the norm but I’m still happy to have met Don.
This was another audiobook excursion for me and from that standpoint, I really enjoyed the narration by Dan O’Grady. His not-too-thick Australian accent put me in the physical world of Don.
