BY Lux Alptraum
August 13, 2007
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The New York Times “Modern Love” column: 1/3 inspiring, 1/3 boring, and 1/3 aggravating. Every Monday, we review this week’s installment, and let you know how the current tale of love (lost, found, or otherwise) stacks up.

The nice half of Boinkology is happy that we can debut this column by writing about an installment of “Modern Love” that we actually enjoyed. The less nice half of Boinkology is pissed that we don’t get to open with a snarky tear down of some fabulously terrible tale of, well, modern love.

So it goes.

One of the more winning qualities of “Modern Love” is its ability to appreciate the concept of “love” as something extending beyond young romance, beyond the basic rituals of mating and dating and marriage. This week’s column is borne out of that understanding: rather than presenting a shallow tale of the ins and outs of courtship, it offers up a rich tale of two former lovers reunited by the common experience of surviving cancer.

The piece explores several complex issues: what does it mean to reconnect with a former lover decades later? How does a fatal illness shape (and change) the form of a relationship? Through it all, the author remains open, honest, and compelling, in a way that drew us in and kept our attention.

But really, we’re not doing it justice. You should just go read it yourself.