4 ideas
Don Tillman, a rigidly logical geneticist, learns his wife Rosie is pregnant while they live in New York. His attempts to prepare through research and rules collide comically with the emotional realities of marriage and parenthood.
The story is narrated in Don's literal, systematizing voice, so the reader experiences social confusion as he does. Misunderstandings arise from his taking language and rules at face value rather than reading subtext.
The novel's arc rejects the idea that Don should be normalized, showing the relationship survive by mutual adjustment. Partners adapt to each other's wiring instead of one changing to fit the other.
Don's data-driven schemes, like observing playgrounds to study children, get him mistaken for a threat and entangle him with authorities. The comedy shows how pure rationality misfires in a world run on unstated social norms.