The Rosie Effect

By Graeme Simsion

Follow up to the first book, The Rosie Project, this book finds newlyweds Rosie and Don living in New York City. Rosie is attending college and Don is a visiting professor. Things seem to be going smoothly, although Don is indulging in alcohol every night, even to the point of waking up with headaches. Then Rosie announces she is pregnant.
Don immediately begins worrying about how this new factor will effect the structure of their lives. Don is extremely intelligent but extremely socially inept, which leads Rosie to doubt his ability to be a caring parent.  But the hyper-logical Don approaches the impending arrival with his usual logic and precision and, of course, nearly ruins their marriage.
Don manages to get himself into the strangest situations, including being arrested as a suspected child molester. On the plus side, though, his expertise gets him and Rosie a lovely, spacious apartment rent-free. However, one of the rooms in the apartment is a beer cellar for the rich man upstairs and thus the apartment reeks of beer. Which is kind of a problem for Rosie, who is experiencing morning sickness. And so it goes, good decisions with bad consequences and Don triumphs over all as his essential kindness and loving nature become apparent to even the most critical of observers, including the woman who declared he should never have children.

I think I liked this story better than the first one, The Rosie Project. Don was so different and strange in the first book and he has certainly mellowed in this one. His relationships with his friends are solid and he seems to make new friends without a problem. All these new relationships have helped him improve how he presents himself to the world, but, being Don, he still is misunderstood and inclined to upset and alarm people unknowingly.  This is what makes the book funny and entertaining, how Don messes up and still manages to put everything right. It was a lot of fun to read. Don Tillman is so cool.

For another review, see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-the-rosie-effect-by-graeme-simsion-sequel-to-the-rosie-project/2014/12/30/e2b79b14-8ae5-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html