Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

When young people seek companionship in the twenty-first century, it's different from how their parents and grandparents had it. Today's technology and increased population make the options for romance occasionally overwhelming. In his first book, comedian and actor Aziz Ansari takes a good look at what modern romance really consists of.

This is not the typical book that you might find written by a celebrity. It's not a memoir or a quick cash-grab, it's a well researched look at love that Ansari wrote alongside sociologist Eric Klinenberg. At the same time it does contain numerous bits of the comedian's sarcasm and a few examples of his own struggles with finding a mate. Some of the topics that he examines come from conversations with audience members at his standup shows, such as when he asks them to show him their text message conversations.

Ansari and Klinenberg take a look at the paradox of choice that daters face. With the advent of online dating, there are so many options available that someone might worry that they're not with the "best" person possible. Ansari contrasts this to how his father had an arranged marriage, which he also addresses on his Netflix show Master of None. The authors took trips to Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and Paris to see how those countries handle dating, in comparison with how Americans do. Ansari found that in Tokyo men were usually too shy to approach women, while in Buenos Aires the males were perhaps too aggressive with their advances.

Aziz Ansari has a signature way of pointing out the absurdities of his generation's behavior while admitting he falls into the same habits. It seems that researching and writing this book gave him insight into not only other people's behavior in relationships, but also his own.

I recommend Modern Romance to anyone in their 20s or 30s who's curious about the subject and doesn't mind Ansari's sense of humor, as there are points when he'll exaggerate or go on a tangent for the sake of a laugh. A side note, the audiobook version has some added content at the beginning and end. At the start of the first CD in specific, Aziz berates the listener for being "too lazy" to read the text and lamenting that he has to "read it to you". That was a surprise that gave me a good chuckle.

To buy the book or learn more, go to book.azizansari.com. However, the site hasn't been updated since it still talks about preordering the book despite it coming out last June.