44 pages • 1 hour read
Graeme SimsionThe Rosie Project
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13–16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Don refuses to give up on the Father Project. He applies his scientific skills to the problem: estimating the actual number of men who remain to be tested, locating them, and figuring out how to get DNA samples. He discovers that there is a 30 year class reunion in only three weeks. He determines that they can gather DNA from the relevant men at the reunion.
He and Rosie are hired as bartenders for the reunion. Don memorizes a whole book containing mixed drink recipes. He realizes that his life is getting chaotic; he calls Claudia for advice.
Don believes that Rosie applied for the Wife Project through Gene and he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her that she’s been eliminated. Claudia encourages Don to spend time with Rosie without telling her anything about the Wife Project, because Don admits that he’s enjoying spending time with Rosie.
Gene asks to see Don at work the next day. He confronts Don about seeing Rosie, which Don had previously denied. Don avoids telling Gene about the Father Project; he’s on dangerous ground collecting DNA without people’s permission and using the university’s lab for private DNA testing.
Gene asks Don how much he knows about Rosie. Don asks Gene why Rosie wants to be part of the Wife Project. Gene doesn’t answer directly, instead, he warns Don not to get his hopes up with Rosie, who Gene believes has a lot of emotional issues.
Chapter 14 Summary
Don gets very drunk during his practice sessions making drinks for his upcoming gig as a bartender at the reunion.
He meets up with Rosie just before the reunion begins to exchange information about how to collect the DNA samples. Don has come prepared, with swabs and baggies labeled with each man’s name. He has memorized all 41 of their names in preparation.
Rosie and Don work hard delivering drinks and collecting samples. When Rosie becomes overwhelmed with the task of remembering all the names, Don takes over. Don is a rock star: he remembers all the names, remembers which samples have been collected or not, and helps Rosie collect the samples from the glasses. He even offers exotic, obscure drinks to ensure that they get a sample from every man. He amazes the guests and other bartenders alike with his knowledge of drinks and recipes.
Chapter 15 Summary
Don’s performance enables his boss to make a lot of money, and they run out of ingredients. The boss arrives to help out, bringing more supplies. Rosie, Don, and the boss stay late to provide drinks for the crowd, long after dinner is over. Rosie and Don are able to get samples for all the men in attendance; they have now collected samples from all but 11 of their pool of potential fathers.
During their analysis of the samples, Don clears the air about the Wife Project. He tells Rosie that he is not interested in her as a romantic partner because she is unsuitable. She tells him that she finds him unsuitable too. Don asks her why she applied for the Wife Project then. She tells him she’s never heard of it. She explains that she had a bet with Gene, and Gene sent her to Don to settle it. The bet was about the size of a man’s testicles being related to monogamy.
Don is struck by the idea that Rosie initially went on a date with him without being part of the Wife Project. He is very pleased by this idea.
Rosie is less pleased with Don. She tells him that his Wife Project is an insult to women, and that he’s treating women like objects. She asks him if he really wants a wife who would let a man treat her like an object. She reveals that she let him think that she’s only a bartender, when she is actually a Ph.D. student studying psychology in Gene’s department.
Don doesn’t understand why Gene didn’t tell him the truth about Rosie; Rosie insists that it’s because Gene is a jerk. Rosie clearly doesn’t like Gene. Rosie asks Don why he’s helping her. When he says he doesn’t know, she storms out, very upset.
The next day she drops by Don’s office to apologize, but she refuses to continue with the Father Project until she understands why Don wants to do it.
Don locates the first candidate for the Wife Project.
Chapter 16 Summary
Bianca Rivera meets all of Don’s requirements. However, Don doesn’t meet all of hers. She is an accomplished ballroom dancer and Don has 10 days before their first date at the faculty ball to learn how to dance. Don accomplishes his task, with the help of a borrowed anatomy skeleton.
Gene tries to get him to take Rosie to the ball instead of Bianca, or to at least go by himself. Don refuses; he’s very excited about meeting Bianca, the perfect date. Claudia encourages Don to be himself and to insist that any date accept him for himself. She asks if Rosie accepts him for himself. Don thinks she does.
As the ball approaches, Don finds himself increasingly ambivalent about meeting Bianca. He doesn’t understand why he feels this way. He wants to pursue the Father Project instead. Even though he’s confused and nervous about meeting Bianca, he is determined to proceed. He orders a formal tux from the rental shop.
Chapter 13-16 Analysis
Don figures out how to help Rosie find her father by coming up with the plan to work as bartenders at her mother’s class reunion. At the reunion, Don and Rosie make a good team, they work well together, and Don steps up when Rosie needs him most.
Don’s explanation about the Wife Project misunderstanding actually does nothing to clear the air between him and Rosie. This is the stuff of traditional, screwball, romantic comedy. Don doesn’t know why he’s helping Rosie, but both Rosie and the reader know that it’s because he likes her. Despite what he says about finding Rosie unsuitable for the Wife Project, he finds he cannot throw himself whole-heartedly into his upcoming date with the “perfect” Bianca.
