Submitted by IOnlyCameToArgue t3_10c1bjm in books
The main character is like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory but on steroids. He's a super genius, who's also apparently good looking, a young professor at a very prestigious university, in incredible physical shape and he even knows martial arts like Jason Bourne.
The story is that he's actually got some kind of mental issue, like an extreme case of autism or aspergers (the author's words, not mine), that makes him unable to understand social cues or engage romantically with women. He doesn't come off as quirky or cute like Sheldon Cooper or Steve Urkel. He's a total psychopath and just downright mean.
For example, there's a scene where he is somehow giving a lecture to an auditorium of college students and researchers and during the question and answer portion he calls on a woman in the back by saying, "Yes you, the large fat woman! What's your question?" The author tries to write it as a funny scene as if he's just socially awkward but in reality it's brutally cruel.
All the female characters he meets are immediately head over heals horny for him for some reason. They're also all described as "stunning, beautiful etc". I can't recall anything being memorable about the female character's thoughts or minds.
So, anyway the main character, in a quest to find a female breeding partner, makes a checklist of 200 questions for each women to complete so he can determine a perfect match for himself. It's absurd.
My girlfriend and I tried, really tried to get through this book and we quit 3/4ths of the way through. The main character is just unbelievable, irredeemable and boring. The author has no idea what asbergers really looks like.
Now, whyyyy did I suggest this book to my gf and why did I try reading it? I'll tell you but you won't believe me -- I had a chance run in with Bill Gates several years ago. Just a short conversation, the kind you'd have in an elevator. I asked him if he was reading any good books at the time and he said, "oh yeah, Melinda and I read The Rosie Project, it was really good. Check it out." I said I would and that was the one and only conversation I ever had with him
Anyway, I suspect he never read it and Melinda probably told him to recommend it because she's an author and knows the other author or something.
It's the worst book I've ever read. It's like a really, really dumb 1970s romcom.
Edit Just clarifying here that I don't claim to know a single thing about the Autism Spectrum or whatever the term Aspergers used to mean. The author used these words and claims to understand them very well. My criticism is that he has no idea what he's talking about and his use of these terms is offensive to some*.