Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari (3.5)
This is a really fun book. Not surprising as Mr. Ansari is
a very funny stand-up comic, but I was surprised at how heartfelt and warmly
written it turned out to be. He and Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology,
embark on a study of dating in today’s world, with particular attention to the
effects of technology compared to past generations. I did find it odd when he
(at age 34) looks at the dating schemes of the ‘younger generation’ much as we
(early 50’s) look at his cohort. While he stuck to heterosexual dating, he did
look at international trends. In one of my favorite chapters, he travels to
Japan expecting to find multitudes of young, technically obsessed Japanese
dating via social media, only to end up finding 1/3 of Japanese under 30 have
never dated! With their birthrate at an abysmal 222nd out of 224
countries, the government is sponsoring ‘meet-ups’ in order to jump start the
dating process. Luckily, while their dating may be in a crisis, Japan still
holds the record for some of the quirkiest fads, such as the Robot Restaurant –
where bikini-clad dancers ride in on huge women-shaped robots! The best parts
of the book tend to be where he points out the obvious – reading a series of
texts from a gent to a lady that starts with ‘sup’, Aziz is flabbergasted by
the lack of creativity and energy put forth by the man. While not fine
literature, the book has good insight into what works, what is hard and what
definitely doesn’t work in today’s dating world with lots of laughs along the
way.
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