A Wigwam for a Goose's Bridle

Don Tillman #3 – by Graeme Simsion – Sequel to The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect

A few years back, I was delighted by The Rosie Project (2013).  Don Tillman, a genetics professor on the autism spectrum although unaware/in denial of this, sets out to find a suitable female companion using a checklist.  Don meets Rosie, who does not tick the boxes, but requires help finding out who is her father, and over the course of this adventure, the two fall in love, marry, and move to New York.

In the sequel, The Rosie Effect (2014), Rosie falls pregnant, and both Don and Rosie have to prepare for impending parenthood whilst maintaining their marriage.  This novel was not as smooth a read as the first, and although I was glad I read it, I can’t say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Simsion’s latest offering to us is The Rosie Result (2019) which I could not help being drawn to despite the effect of the Effect.  I’m so glad I was.

Fast forward 10 years, and 11 year old Hudson is, in many ways, just like his father.  The little family move back to Australia, and Hudson struggles with this upheaval in his life and settling into a new school.  Don accidentally gets himself embroiled in a racism scandal.  Rosie struggles with workplace sexism.  When the school request his parents seek a formal diagnosis of autism,  Don instead decides to quit his job and attempt to help Hudson learn to fit in.   A nod to how they met, he and Rosie open a cocktail bar.  Rosie returns to full time work but her life is still illustrative of the multiple challenges facing working mothers, both at home and in the workplace.   With his father terminally ill, and in wishing he could be the parent he wanted as an 11 year old, Don learns a lot about himself and his family.

Is Hudson on the spectrum or not?  Is a formal diagnosis necessary? Will it hinder him? Can he be happy and successful whilst still being himself?  Will Rosie’s career ever not be hindered by being a woman and a mother?  Will the cocktail bar succeed?  Will Don ever accept that he himself is clearly on the spectrum?

I loved this novel, fully redeeming the series from the failings in the middle installment.  Simsion once again provides easy, entertaining prose with a heartwarming story of the importance of family, and a reminder that some aspects of school and life can be tricky to navigate, even for a neurotypical.