The Rosie Project: A Novel by Graeme Simsion (2013)

Pink Sweetheart Roses. Source: muffet1 via deviantart

You know when you stay up super late because you started a book, and you just have to finish it before going to bed?

It’s almost 1 a.m. local time, and I just finished this book. I’m still processing. I can’t sleep yet, so I figured I’d blog about it instead.

You know when a book is so good that as soon as you’ve read the last page, you want to flip it over and start from the beginning again? Even though you figured out the plot twist halfway through and you know how the story ends?

I have to work in the morning, so I can’t re-read this right away. But it’s still a newbie at the library, and pretty popular (and for good reason) so it’s only a seven-day loan. Which gives me ’til Saturday. I only started this book on my lunch break today, so I’ve got plenty of time to re-read it before it goes back to the library. Maybe even twice.

The Rosie Project just reminds me so much of ME, and it reminds me so much of SO MANY PEOPLE I KNOW, and it’s like it explains so many things about the human condition, and yet I’ve got more questions now than I did before. I kind of teared up at one little section towards the end, and I don’t know why, of all the scenes or sentences or phrasings, that was the section my brain went for.

More questions to answer. More thoughts to ponder. Not sure if I’ll fall asleep with my brain on like this… maybe I’ll start re-reading Rosie again right now. (Rosie is the name of one of the main characters, by the way.)

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks (2012)

There was a blurb on the back of this book (favourably) comparing Memoirs to Emma Donoghue‘s novel Room, which I loved. I don’t think I would have been aware of the similarities between the two books had it not been pointed out, but  there definitely were certain parallels between the two.

Most obviously, the main plotline of each story focuses on a kid who’s trapped and has to be big and brave and smart and strong to get himself out. Jack (in Room) has his mother to help him, while Max, the protagonist of Memoirs, has his imaginary friend Budo. Budo is the narrator of this book; even though this book is about Max, these are essentially Budo’s memoirs.

Max is autistic, and he thinks Budo up to help him when the going gets tough. However, Budo is also able to go out on his own in the world and have his own adventures. Budo’s naïvété about the world struck me as similar to Jack’s after he escapes the room — each suffers from a lack of context, for sure — but the way both of them describe things, in a literal and childish sort of way, is very endearing to the reader.

Jack and his mom make it out of the room okay, and Max makes it out of his, but Budo’s not so lucky. He meets lots of other imaginary friends on his journey, and he’s lived longer and done more exciting things than many (or even most, or all!) of these other companions, but even the best imaginary friend can’t stay around forever.