‘MODERN LOVE’

Years ago I stumbled across a column in the New York Times, Modern Love. It’s a weekly submission about some aspect of “love,” how people met, how they broke up, but also other aspects of relationships, having kids, etc. I haven’t kept up with this column fully over the years, but I always thoroughly enjoyed these stories, which came from who I thought were regular people. Well, now I realize they are not necessarily regular people, but more on this later…

So when I saw that Amazon Prime Video had a series with the same title, I was interested. The episodes are based, some more loosely than others, on the most popular columns, using actors you will recognize. Because each episode is a totally new story, you are (maybe) less likely to binge. The series is really well done.

Example episode: When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist

But after two episodes, I started missing the columns again. So I looked to see if they were put in book format. They were!

I immediately ordered this collection for my kindle Modern Love, Revised and Updated: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption , and it is what I’ve been reading for the last two days. I “loved” every minute of it.

What I realized, however, is that these (at least the columns used in the book and the show) are not written by just any old person. At the end of each column it says this writer is the “author of” something or other or works for this or that publication. So these “most popular” submissions are by people who write professionally anyway. Not too surprising I suppose. The online column now has a “tiny love stories” series which appears to be submitted by more amateur writers.

I did still watch the rest of season 1 on Amazon and enjoyed it even after being able to compare it with the columns.

Here is the link to the New York Times column.

If you, like me, enjoy “other people’s stories” you will likely enjoy Modern Love in whatever format you choose.