Modern Romance

I bought this because I read an article about dating by the author and it was true and funny. Not so this book. Ansari is not as funny as he thinks he is. And with writing like this: (page 128): “ ...load the cheapest s* I can fill my tank and get the f* out of there”. What truly excellent prose!

Listened to this as an audiobook on the drive from Rochester to Boston. It got some good laughs from me, and while a lot of the modern dating pieces weren't necessarily ground-breaking, Aziz presented them in a refreshing way that makes the whole modern romance scene less absurd to those (ahem, myself) who are subject to it. The sections on romance in other cultures is also pretty fascinating. Would definitely recommend to any millennial, single or not.

This book brings laughter with an equal dose of understanding what it means to chase the most essential human pursuit, true love, in today's world. The great lessons here are not about how to find love faster, or how to become a Tinder master, but how to keep in touch with empathy when so much of our talking is through screens.

If you watched Aziz Ansari's recent Netflix show, Master of None, then the content of this book might sound appealing. Unfortunately it is more of a clinical depiction of some of the great comedy from the series. The book itself focuses on the different ways people connect today, and how that's different than it was 50 years ago. What was the most interesting to me was how people connect around the world – in France, Japan and South America.

Better than most comedians' books. Actually part humor, part sociology, and part advice column. Mainly about how technology and online dating have modified social norms. Feels a little like the jokes and the serious advice step on each other's toes sometimes. But I enjoyed it and found it surprisingly insightful.

Listen, Linda, is this guy an authority on dating in the digital age? No, I really don't think so. Is he a good author? No, not really. Is he a good comedian? Perhaps when doing stand-up comedy, but not in the written format. Did I retain anything from this really long and obtuse book? That's debatable. If you want to read stats about online dating, you can google the information. You don't have to read this book.

If you watched Aziz Ansari's recent Netflix show, Master of None, then the content of this book might sound appealing. Unfortunately it is more of a clinical depiction of some of the great comedy from the series. The book itself focuses on the different ways people connect today, and how that's different than it was 50 years ago. What was the most interesting to me was how people connect around the world – in France, Japan and South America.

I think this is a book that everyone who is interested in romance should read. Is it the best written book? No. It has a few issues like repetitions and some imbalances. However, it was a book that truly taught me more about my relationship and even myself. It had a lot of interesting ideas and facts. I can easily say that it changed the way I see a few things in my life and not every book can accomplish that.

This was fine. I chose to listen to the audiobook version, and I'm really glad I made that choice, because this really isn't the kind of book I would sit down and read traditionally. In fact, I think the audio format suits the author's style and voice more than the written word. I don't find Ansari hilarious, but I laughed some throughout. The information was eye-opening in parts, especially the sections regarding international dating habits in the modern day. If I'm being honest, I listened to the audiobook in less than two days more to get it off my TBR than because I was really looking for a great read.

(Adding a review so that when I go back to the book I'll know how I felt just after I read it)

The first book of the year and what a start. I listened to it, given my dream is for aziz to read a pasta recipe to me at bedtime. Even though this is a review, think of it more like a free writing. I'm probably going to review just the book and not the review. So coming back to the point, this book, like Aziz I presume, goes down easy. The stats are mind-blowing at some points and he doesn't indulge in them too much and moves forward pretty smoothly. At 6 hours, it's a short listen and thoroughly enjoyable.

We get to see romance from ages past till the modern ones, from the erudite men in Japan to the over promiscuous one in Argentina, the perspectives are vast. I wished he covered one from his parents' country of origin, India for the uninitiated, that would have been interesting seeing that we have the ultra-prude and the uber-creeps in the same country, with a dash of the urban and rural romantics to boot. I'd love to see him take this and many more countries and times on his sequel, the name which has stuck with me since I came up with it on the pot today, Post-Modern Romance. hmmm.

Some points of the book hit too close to home. The boring “hey”s sent to girls, the mind games while texting, the herbivore men. All too real. Though this book might be better if you are a straight male reader, but that's just me projecting. I can't know what others can take away from this, but I'd love to hear the thoughts.

Anyway, As you may now know I'm a big fan of him and his work and love how he divides his life into small projects. Looking forward to what he puts up next.

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to! I'm often disappointed by standup comedian books (although I keep reading them) because I'm like, this is just your standup written down, and I already saw your standup act. This was something different–it did overlap a bit with his bits where he reads audience member standup comedy but in this case I felt like it built off of and enhanced the standup act, rather than just replicating it.

The pop-sociology about choice and dating wasn't totally new to me, but was presented in an entertaining and useful way, and one that mostly reinforced my own experiences with online dating.

Also there is a whole page of photoshopping Dwayne The Rock Johnson into someone's vacation photos, which is an excellent feature for a book to have.

After a lot of press and a lot of hype, this book ended up being pretty good. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys social science and/or Aziz Ansari's comedy. The book seems to weigh just the slightest bit more on the humor/comedy side, and that's why I think I would recommend the audiobook, which is read by the author. Biggest takeaways: 1 out of every 3 American couples that got married within the last 10 years met online, half of France thinks cheating is just fine, and Japan is just all sorts of weird.

this was my first start-to-finish audio book experience (since childhood anyway) and it was pretty awesome! I liked that Aziz read it himself. the content was pretty interesting even if I didn't agree with all the takeaways and Aziz's jokes weren't always funny (sorry?) it was super convenient to bring with me on my commute and at the gym. As with many of the books I'm reading on this topic (#bookclub4m #bookclubformasocists ) this is more about the beginnings of relationships and courtship than later years. very US/hetero centric (which Aziz admits upfront)

Aziz Ansari is a very funny man. His standup never fails to make me laugh, and his Netflix show, Master of None, is full of chuckle-worthy moments. I picked up Modern Romance with a (perhaps mistaken) expectation of humour, and after reading nothing but rave reviews of the book by critics and friends.

Modern Romance is not funny. This would not be a problem if it limited itself to being a sociological treatise on the state of dating and attachment in our current era, but the largest issue is that Mr. Ansari actually tries to be humorous throughout the book, and fails. His interjections about eating ramen in Japan or his incessant “lawyer's advice” belie his usual irreverent humor: in this case, they comes across as someone trying too hard to be funny, to add unnecessary levity to a subject matter that is engrossing enough on a social theory level.

I met my wife before the age of Tinder. We met online, like many do these days, but our courtship didn't involve swiping left and right and waiting ages for a text messages to arrive. Our online interaction was brief, and we both knew, fairly quickly after meeting each other, that we would be willing to build a life together. As such, much of the content in Modern Romance isn't as applicable or relevant as it would be to someone currently trying to navigate the waters of romance in the digital age. It is, however, resonant: the information in Modern Romance touches on the wider social and cultural issues of our generation (albeit with a decidedly heteronormative lens) and presents an interesting window on societal mores in the age of digital connection.

If written as a typical cultural studies book à la Nassim Taleb or Chuck Klosterman, Modern Romance could have been infinitely better. Cultural insights with poignant anecdotes are an excellent recipe for this kind of book; trying to infuse it (and failing in the process) with irreverent humor that is better delivered via voice rather text lessens the impact and interestingness.

Then again, as a happily-married man who isn't looking for love online, maybe I'm just not the target audience. Modern Romance may have failed for me, but I'll still be watching Mr. Ansari's standup, laughing loudly all the way.

(Originally published on inthemargins.ca)