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***NO SPOILERS***

Graeme Simsion clearly had the popular adage “You find love when you least expect it�� in mind when he wrote The Rosie Project, a romantic comedy with an autistic protagonist. Simsion took a very tired genre and gave it a shot of energy with an unusual protagonist who values routine, order, and precision and is determined to find a wife in the most methodical way possible.

This is essentially a fish-out-of-water story, with the fish, protagonist Don Tillman, not understanding why he’s a fish out of water; he knows only that he’s “wired differently.�� It’s a pleasant, lighthearted rom-com that I liked but didn’t love. The idea of a protagonist with Asperger’s syndrome is fresh and I welcomed that fresh take, but the humor in The Rosie Project stems from Don’s Asperger’s, making it feel like I was laughing at him the whole time, not with him. Simsion at least made sure Don isn’t unlikable or pitiable--he’s totally capable and highly intelligent--and he’s endearing and charming in his way. Nevertheless, this character is a professor of genetics at a prestigious college and yet first and foremost is a walking joke, without intending to be and without the ability to change.

Asperger’s can manifest very differently from one diagnosed person to the next, with some having a form so mild that it’s barely detectable. For Simsion’s comedic purposes, Don’s is on the extreme end. This gets totally unrealistic at times. In those moments it appears Don is not from planet Earth: He refers at one point to smart phones as “portable computing devices�� and clothing is almost always “costumes.�� He describes one woman as having “several metal objects�� in her ears instead of “piercings�� or “earrings.�� This is a good litmus test for any story featuring an autistic character: If that character could easily be replaced by an alien, the portrayal fails.

It can be argued that this is just a rom-com, a simple, escapist read undeserving of serious critique. However, by their very nature, portrayals of Asperger’s--a form of autism widely misunderstood and stigmatized--demand some complexity and some nuance. This isn’t impossible. T.V. show “Atypical,�� a dramedy focused on a very human character with autism, does it, and well. It’s funny, but the humor is more subtle and organic than exaggerated and contrived--and best of all, the autistic character doesn’t have a “kick me�� sign permanently attached to his back.

Despite the drawbacks, The Rosie Project is entertaining. It progresses at a steady clip as the characters find themselves in all sorts of outrageous predicaments in their quest to find Rosie’s biological father. Simsion says in an interview at the end that he initially envisioned The Rosie Project as a screenplay and that’s obvious; scenes are very lively, and the characters and how they speak and behave are easy to visualize. Simsion is a talented storyteller, and his approach to the rom-com is refreshing in particular because The Rosie Project is never sappy or corny. But when it comes down to it, although the book isn’t a clichéd rom-com, it is a rom-com with a caricature at its center, and despite solid effort from Simsion, it squanders a prime opportunity to transcend its genre.