Book 11: The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion

 

"I decided to read 52 books this year so that I could find & read books like The Rosie Project- books that would make me laugh, sigh and remind me why I love reading"

'The Rosie Project' by Graeme Simsion is a story about the search for love and its rather surprising results. It has been an absolute pleasure to read and review The Rosie Project as All Booked Up's 11th book of 2014. The Rosie Project is a sweet, endearing novel with many laugh out loud moments. And I mean serious, do-not-read-in-public-otherwise-you-will-look-like-a-lunatic, laugh out loud moments. None of this smirking at the page business. Simsion's writing never feels contrived, the characters are lifelike and genuine, and just like I did, you will fall in love with the main character, Don, well before the last page.
Everyone who I have mentioned that I was reading this book to has had the same response, that The Rosie Project is a great novel.  It has been one of the few books this year I have loved from the very beginning and knew right away it would definitely deserve a 5 star rating.

Two different covers of The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project begins with Professor Don Tillman searching for a solution to his 'Wife Problem'. That he doesn't have one. Don is a brilliant genetic researcher, bicycling enthusiast, an excellent and extremely efficient cook, and very, very single. Don also has Asperger's Syndrome, a fact of which he remains unaware despite the subtle efforts of his few friends. Don develops the 'Wife Project, setting up a survey as a way of culling potential candidates and to allow for maximum time efficiency, wasting no time on dates with unsuitable ladies. However Don's project doesn't go to plan when the spontaneous, stubborn and unique Rosie crosses his path.

I decided to read The Rosie Project because I heard that it had a main character with a disability and as I work with people with disability who are on the autism spectrum, it tweaked my interest. But make no mistake, this novel is not a book about 'disability'. The Rosie Project is a novel about love, friendship, surprises and compromise. 

The fact that Don has Asperger's does lead to many hilarious moments with Don's understanding of social situations being slightly off kilter from the 'norm'. Don acknowledges he has difficulties with reading social cues and developing friendships, and the novel has quite a few funny moments where Don puts his foot in it.

"You seem very interested in babies" (Natalie said)
"I'm interested in their behaviour. Without the corrupting influence of a parent present."
She Looked at me strangely. "Do you do any stuff with kids? I mean Scouts, Church Groups..."
"No," I Said. "It's unlikely I'd be suitable".

In writing the novel in first person, Simsion allows readers to see the world from Don's unique point of view, and laugh along at times when Don is blissfully unaware the effect his words have on others. More powerfully, in writing the novel from Don's perspective, Simsion allows readers to see that the fact Don has Asperger's Syndrome does not prevent him from leading a very interesting life. The Rosie Project reminds readers that someone's 'disability' is not necessarily their defining factor, and can even be more of an 'ability' (Don's ability to remember facts and optimise his time for maximum efficiency come in handy a few times).


The Good Bits

Throughout the novel, Don believes that all ice-cream tastes the same and plans to only date women who believe this.

Didn't want to miss a chance to fit in a Ron Swanson GIF

What is quite a humorous part of the novel actually serves as a reminder that we all get stuck in our ways and beliefs, often limiting ourselves and our ability to have different experiences and the potential to make new friends. When Don chills out a bit (get it, ice-cream, chilled, haha?) he ends up having a lot more fun.


And the best bit of all is that there will be a sequel! The Rosie Effect is coming out later this year.

The Not So Good Bits

ummm... that it wasn't longer?

But in all seriousness, there was nothing about this novel that I did not like. Simsion has created a truly excellent novel which is humorous and quirky but without being silly or disingenuous. I am thoroughly looking forward to reading the sequel. Ultimately, I decided to read 52 books this year so I could find books like The Rosie Project, books that would make me laugh, sigh and remind me why I love reading. Thank you Mr Simsion.

Rating

5 out of 5 tasty ice-creams

Want more?

Novels similar to The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion are

Getting the Girl, Markus Zusak, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon, The Fault in Our Stars, John Green


 Bonus section!

If you think the cover of The Rosie Project is as cool as I do, check out this interesting look into the different covers of The Rosie Project around the world! 

 

The Next Book

Tell The Wolves I'm Home, a novel about a young girl who looses her beloved uncle to AIDS in the 1980's.

Book 9 Review & Interview: The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals, Wendy Jones

My 9th Book this year was the lovely novel 'The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals' by British author Wendy Jones. It was a book I thoroughly enjoyed and only took me a day to read. In exciting news, Wendy Jones, the author of  'The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals'  kindly agreed to be interviewed for All Booked Up 2014. This is All Booked Up's first exclusive interview dear readers, and you are in for a treat!



The beautiful book cover of The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals by Wendy Jones

Due to the fact that Australia is ahead of everywhere else in the world (in time and number of animals per square kilometre that want to kill you), the interview was conducted via email.



Basically this interview is better than interviewing J.K. Rowling.

Amejoys: There is nothing better than having an author describe a novel in her own words. So this is the perfect time to ask if you could you please describe your novel, ‘The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals’, to my blog readers? 

Wendy Jones: The novel is about an undertaker, Wilfred Price, in 1924 west Wales. He inadvertently proposes to a woman he likes but soon realises his mistake, especially when he meets Flora. The novel is about Wilfred's work and romantic life and the constraints and gentleness of the time. 

 

I have never been to the UK, let alone to Wales, yet I found myself so easily transported to the small Welsh town of Narberth in which the novel was set. Your descriptions of the physical environment almost made the town seem like a character, was that your intention?  

 I very much wanted Narberth to be a character and to give the novel a very specific sense of place, to have it rooted. 

I Imagined 1920's Narberth looked just like this

 

For a novel that is so often described as ‘charming’, the novel does touch on some serious issues (which I won’t spoil here for those who haven’t read it yet). When writing your novel did you aim to balance the good with the bad, as life often does? 

Mostly I wanted the novel to be comforting; there is dark subject matter and it was important that there was a range for me, of what is light and easy, and what is hard to accept. 

 

If ‘The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals’ was made into a movie, who would be your ideal actors to portray Wilfred, Grace, Flora and Dr Reece? 

If the novel becomes a movie, I have no idea who would play the parts! Perhaps Antony Hopkins as Dr Reece! I see the characters in my mind's eye so clearly, I can't imagine them as anyone other than they are.

 

Exclusive! You heard it here first! Sir Anthony Hopkins to play Dr Reece in the movie adaption of The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals. Haha.  

 

Cover art does have a large part in how readers choose books in bookstores. The old adage tells us not to judge a book by its cover, but the edition I read, with the blue and gold cover, was beautiful.  Are you happy with the look of the book? Who did the cover art?
I like the cover very much; it is clear and distinctive. I had no say in it but am very pleased with it. 

 

When I first finished ‘The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price..' I was almost disappointed in the choices of both Grace and Flora. I felt they both made choices that these days would make a feminist cringe. But on reflection, I realised that Grace (And to some extent, Flora) did not have the opportunities that women do today, and that their decisions were not choices, but rather the outcome of events which they coped rather well with. Did you deliberately create storylines for Grace and Flora that would in some way highlight the challenges that women faced in the 1920s?
I thought of Grace and Flora as women of their time, as we all are, and their lives were circumscribed by their time, as ours are. I am not sure how free any of us are, especially women, although Flora and Grace both think of themselves as freer than their mother's and grandmother's generations. 

 

Did you find it difficult to transition from writing non-fiction with your Biography of Grayson Perry, to writing a novel? Do you prefer writing non-fiction, or fiction?

I didn't find the transition from non-fiction to novel writing difficult - they are both the same in that they both demand narrative, and follow strict rules of what a writer has to do to engage a reader. I like writing both; they both fascinate me. 

 

The book cover of The World is A Wedding, the sequel to The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals  by Wendy Jones 

 

I am very excited to have discovered that you have written a sequel to ‘The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price..', called 'The World Is A Wedding'. Where does this novel pick up, and does it still focus on Wilfred?

The sequel The World is a Wedding starts almost immediately after The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price ends and it is about Wilfred, but also Grace and Flora, as the lives of all three are interwoven more than they realise or perhaps had wanted. They are connected and need resolution and peace with each other and Wilfred, too, feels guilty about how he has treated Grace and the guilt is bothering him.

 

A huge THANK YOU to Wendy Jones for answering my questions.
And a bigger thank you for bringing us such a lovely novel!
Pop into your local bookstore and buy a copy of  'The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals' or the sequel 'The World is a Wedding', you won't be disappointed!

The Good Bits:

For a novel that does deal with some complicated and emotional subjects, it is, as Wendy Jones herself described, a comforting book. It is a charming and enjoyable novel, and will make you want to snuggle up with a pot of tea and buttered welsh cakes and read for a whole day!

The Not So Good Bits:

As I mentioned to Wendy, the ending did leave my feminist senses twitching, but as Wendy explained, the lives of the female characters realistically and truthfully reflected the lives of many women of the 1920s.

Rating:

4 1/2 of 5 bicycling gentlemen.

Want more?

If you liked 'The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals'  by Wendy Jones you might like:




Notwithstanding, Louis de Bernieres, The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce

 

The Next book:

I have read Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier, a very interesting novel, which also happened to be set (and written) in the early 1900's.

 

 

 

 

I have entered All Booked Up 2014 into The Best Australian Blogs Competition. If you like what I write and enjoy my gratuitous use of GIFs please click on the picture below and send a vote my way! Tick the box in the survey next to "All Booked Up 2014".

  

Book 5 review: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, Xiaolu Guo

My 5^th book out of 52 books this year was the quirky and endearing novel, ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’ by Xiaolu Guo. Unlike the last novel I reviewed (The Goldfinch) this speedy little book took me one day to finish, not a week and a half. ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’  follows Zhuang “Z” as she is sent to London by her parents to study English. The year that follows is a year of discovery and awakening for Zhuang, as she studies English, life and love. It is a very sweet, charming and beautifully written novel, easy to review and well worth a read. 

The beautiful cover for Xiaolu Guo’s ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’

Guo’s novel is written from the point of view of 23 year old Zhuang, or Z as she first arrives in London with a very limited grasp of English, and a great sense of disconnect and loneliness as she leaves her native China and her family for the first time. 

The language used in the novel is very sweet. The novel starts with short, almost apologetic sentences as Z narrates her life with her limited vocabulary.

There are two or three pages in the novel simply in Cantonese, with an editor’s translation on the reverse of the page. In these pages the sense of frustration that Zhuang feels is palpable as she struggles to convey her thoughts in a foreign language and world. 

As the novel progresses Zhuang’s grasp of English improves, but she still continues to struggle to grasp the nuances of English culture and its many differences from the familiarity of her Chinese homeland. There are many unique and amusing phrases in this novel as Zhuang finds a way to describe everyday objects she doesn't yet know the words for in English or that have an interesting translation in Chinese. 

In a shocking development, something I learnt at university resonated with me when reading this novel, meaning my university degree can actually be applied to real life.

woah

While reading this novel I was reminded of the concept of intersectionality. I know it sounds like a made up word (even Microsoft spell check doesn't recognise it) but bear with me. Intersectionality is the concept that all challenges and oppressions faced by individuals are interlinked. An individual’s life is informed by many different factors; their gender, their race, their language, their age, and not one of these factors can be separated out.

Drawing by yours truly

Zhuang’s experiences are not solely informed by her language and her struggles to understand and to be understood in English. Her life- and the novel- is about many more subtle challenges than that. Zhuang also embarks on a journey of sexual self-discovery and love with an older man, as she discovers her understanding of sexuality is inherently tied to her culture and upbringing in China, as well as her youth and naivete . She also struggles with the reality of cross cultural relationships, with her language school classmates and with her lover. 

The novel is full of observations on cultural norms. Zhuang discovers that although in many respects Western Culture appears more open than Chinese culture with more nudity and sexuality in the media, in other respects, the British can be closed and prudish. Especially when it comes to farting, frowned upon in the West but not so in China. 

Ultimately this novel by Guo is a beautiful account of love, life and language. Anyone who has ever struggled with a foreign language can relate to Zhuang's struggle to understand and to be understood. The novel is also a story of sexual awakening and expression, and includes some of the most beautifully written accounts of love I have ever read. This beats your average chick-flick novel any day. So next time you are after a short, quick and lovely novel to read pick ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’ instead of a trashy romance and you will find yourself inspired, amused and informed. 

The Good bits 

I have mentioned it already, but every page has an interesting observation on Western culture or the English language. As an outsider, Zhuang's observations of our culture are insightful and at sometimes challenging. 

I came away from reading this novel with a smile on my face and a sense that I had read a really good story. Not many novels do that as well as ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’.

The Not So Good Bits 

Seeing one's culture reflected through the eyes of the other can remind us that our society can be excluding or negative. Reading this novel was an important reminder to respect others who perhaps cannot understand English as well as a native speaker, and to respect the difficulties people face in trying to speak in a new language. 

The way that Zhuang introduces herself as "Z" “but please no worry to remember…my name too long to pronounce” highlights how many immigrants to a new place feel they must change their identity and name simply to fit in better, to make it easier for the super majority. I have made it a goal next time someone introduces themself with a name I haven't heard before and don't know how to pronounce to take the time to learn their name properly. And to not do the Australian thing of shortening it to one syllable with an "o" at the end (Damo, Johno, Shorto etc etc). 

Yep this is what Aussies do...

Rating 

4 and a half out of 5 

The Next Book 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Haven't started it yet but it is certainly the book of the moment, becoming a movie later this year.