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Disparates: Essays
In English disparate means “different” or “miscellaneous”—apt descriptors of these essays by Patrick Madden. In Spanish, however, disparate means “nonsense,” “folly,” or “absurdity,”—words appropriate to Madden’s goal of undercutting any notion that essays must be serious business. Thus, in this collection, the essays are frivolous and lively, aiming to make readers laugh while they think about such abstract subjects as happiness and memory and unpredictability.
In this vein, Madden takes sidelong swipes at weighty topics via form, with wildly meandering essays, abandoned essays in honor of the long tradition of essayists disparaging their own efforts, and guerrilla essays—which slip in quietly under the guise of a borrowed form, abruptly attack, and promptly escape, leaving laughter and contemplation in their wake. Madden also incorporates cameos from guest essayists, including Mary Cappello, Matthew Gavin Frank, David Lazar, Michael Martone, Jericho Parms, and Wendy S. Walters, much like a musician features other performers.
Disparates reflects the current zeitgeist by taking on important issues with a touch of cleverness, a dash of humor, and a little help from one’s friends. Read Chapter 1.
In this vein, Madden takes sidelong swipes at weighty topics via form, with wildly meandering essays, abandoned essays in honor of the long tradition of essayists disparaging their own efforts, and guerrilla essays—which slip in quietly under the guise of a borrowed form, abruptly attack, and promptly escape, leaving laughter and contemplation in their wake. Madden also incorporates cameos from guest essayists, including Mary Cappello, Matthew Gavin Frank, David Lazar, Michael Martone, Jericho Parms, and Wendy S. Walters, much like a musician features other performers.
Disparates reflects the current zeitgeist by taking on important issues with a touch of cleverness, a dash of humor, and a little help from one’s friends. Read Chapter 1.
- GenresEssaysNonfictionHumor
180 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2020
3 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 11, 2020
I always dreaded writing essays for school. It never seemed like a particularly enjoyable or effective way for me to share my ideas, and often I felt constrained by rigid structural expectations or formal writing conventions. What I loved about this collection of charming oddball essays is that it helped me see the possibilities and potential fun that can be had with the form. Why can’t an essay be in the form of an ebay ad or crossword puzzle? Why can’t you pepper in references to song lyrics or obscure literary quotations? Patrick Madden clearly delights in the freedom of essays and I must say that enthusiasm is infectious! I love that this collection was a laugh-out-loud entertaining experience, yet was also informative and instructive as to what essays really can be.
November 15, 2021
essay collections are not my usual reading, but I found this enjoyable! patrick's writing style is engaging (if a bit esoteric and elevated, which might make it difficult for some to find relatable). there's humor and wit here as well as insight. an enjoyable read.
February 11, 2021
Very enjoyable.
May 17, 2020
An extended metaphor: Patrick Madden is simultaneously one of those guys who reads the entire instruction manual and one of those guys who chucks the manual and immediately attempts to figure out all the other uses for it--the things you're not supposed to do. Which is to say that he's gladly participating in a long tradition of the literal essay, going back to Montaigne while also running up to things you wouldn't expect to be essays--word search puzzles, aphorisms, and pangram haiku--and roping them into the genre. Madden's an incredibly thoughtful writer, not just in how the kindness that he brings to the world he's writing about, but also in the way that he's able to do the act of what Phillip Lopate called "writing clearly about complicated things." "Plums," one of Madden's collaborations with other essayists, is one of the best essays I've read in a long time, but the whole book is a delight.
February 10, 2021
I love the wit, the humor, the personable writing style. Far more lighthearted than most nonfiction I’ve read, and enjoyable too. Some slower ones, but overall a pretty great read. I love how he takes seemingly uninteresting or daily things and can turn them into an essay—like his perfecting of closing his door.
I also had the pleasure of ‘meeting’ Madden (virtually), as he came to my nonfiction class, and he was quite a lovely fellow with a good sense of humor. He wore the Montaigne costume. We were all pleased.
I also had the pleasure of ‘meeting’ Madden (virtually), as he came to my nonfiction class, and he was quite a lovely fellow with a good sense of humor. He wore the Montaigne costume. We were all pleased.
March 24, 2020
A wide variety of styles and subjects covered in these "disparate" essays, which made for an enjoyable read. Lots of music references, many lost on me, to my regret.
March 5, 2020
Disparates: Essays by Patrick Madden is a wonderful collection of essays, or maybe essayistic pieces. Form, as well as content, is both playful and played with. The book descriptions mention taking some of the seriousness out of the perception of the essay form. While true, it also illustrates that serious and playful are neither opposites nor mutually exclusive.
I think many essays, or at least what we expect from many essays, is something that is both personal and to some extent conclusive, even if that conclusion is that there is no definitive answer. In other words, we still think of an essay as similar to what we all wrote in school, something that ultimately argues or illustrates a point or a stand on something. What I found refreshing here was that even more than usual these essays invited, and at times insisted, that the reader walk part of the path. Maybe even beyond where Madden the essayist stopped. This is the next step beyond simply thought-provoking. This is thought generating. It seems at times he starts making a point or expressing an idea (often abstractly) only to question himself and finally to leave it to us to follow through. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean in the sense of simply deserting the reader. We still have a very good idea where he continued after the essay, but we are offered the opportunity to follow or find our own path through our own interpretations of his observations.
I realize that I probably sound confusing in the previous paragraph, or at least confused. That is not the case. I just can't really put into words what I feel these essays accomplished that is different from what many other wonderful essay collections have accomplished. So the disconnectedness is all on me, not within the book itself. Look at it this way: the book succeeded in making me think enough that even a few days after finishing the book I am still working through what I read and how I feel about it. I love books that do that. A book that stops acting on me the second I stop physically acting on the book might be enjoyable but is a temporary dalliance. This is something that is becoming a part of who I am and how I think. Maybe a small part, but at my age there is only room left for small changes.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I think many essays, or at least what we expect from many essays, is something that is both personal and to some extent conclusive, even if that conclusion is that there is no definitive answer. In other words, we still think of an essay as similar to what we all wrote in school, something that ultimately argues or illustrates a point or a stand on something. What I found refreshing here was that even more than usual these essays invited, and at times insisted, that the reader walk part of the path. Maybe even beyond where Madden the essayist stopped. This is the next step beyond simply thought-provoking. This is thought generating. It seems at times he starts making a point or expressing an idea (often abstractly) only to question himself and finally to leave it to us to follow through. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean in the sense of simply deserting the reader. We still have a very good idea where he continued after the essay, but we are offered the opportunity to follow or find our own path through our own interpretations of his observations.
I realize that I probably sound confusing in the previous paragraph, or at least confused. That is not the case. I just can't really put into words what I feel these essays accomplished that is different from what many other wonderful essay collections have accomplished. So the disconnectedness is all on me, not within the book itself. Look at it this way: the book succeeded in making me think enough that even a few days after finishing the book I am still working through what I read and how I feel about it. I love books that do that. A book that stops acting on me the second I stop physically acting on the book might be enjoyable but is a temporary dalliance. This is something that is becoming a part of who I am and how I think. Maybe a small part, but at my age there is only room left for small changes.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
May 9, 2020
Patrick Madden will upend your perceptions of what is possible for an essay. He creates conversations between himself, other writers, and the reader. Picking up this book is like sitting down at a bar with friends and having a lively discussion, it's just that this discussion lives on the page and your contribution is all in your head. But you are asked to contribute, fellow reader, have no doubt. These essayistic conversations will have you laughing. They linger in your mind long after you've put the book down so you are compelled to pick it back up again just to confirm you really did read it correctly. They linger in your thoughts. They ask the same things of you that a good conversation asks. They are by turns serious and whimsical, surprising, thought provoking and irreverent. With pictures. Who doesn't like pictures?
It will make you want to pick up a pen and add in some of your own thoughts to the page. It will make you wish you'd bid on that bottle of Michael Martone's half finished water after all.
It will make you want to pick up a pen and add in some of your own thoughts to the page. It will make you wish you'd bid on that bottle of Michael Martone's half finished water after all.
December 9, 2020
I'm an essay junky. I read them, I write them, and I study them. And Pat Madden is one of the greatest practioners of the genre, full-stop. His roving imagination and ever-expansive conception of the form leave me stunned time and again. Open Disparates, and you will see a wonderland of intellectual wordscapes, a veritable almanac of the sacred and whimsical. This collection hits on all cylinders and should be required reading for anyone who wants to see the elasticity of the essay form on full display.
May 19, 2020
Disparates is a whimsical and joyous and playful collection, punctuated with tender moments of grief and contemplative solemnity. I was continually surprised and delighted by the pithy humor, the intelligent citations, and the inventive approaches to form that Madden takes. “Repast” in particular reflects the essayistic ingenuity of Disparates, and might be one of my favorite essays of all time. This collection is exhilarating and unexpected, but more than anything, it urges its readers to listen better, read better, and become better humans, which is all I can ask for in anything I read.
February 20, 2020
Patrick Madden shows himself to be a master of form in Disparates. There is much to appreciate in this book.
December 28, 2019
An interesting read, short stories/essays that income more thought than just reading.
From auctioning a celebrity's used water bottle to an essay in the form of a word search, I was intrigued the entire read.
Only start this book if you have time to put it down often to consider WTF you just read, in the best way possible.
From auctioning a celebrity's used water bottle to an essay in the form of a word search, I was intrigued the entire read.
Only start this book if you have time to put it down often to consider WTF you just read, in the best way possible.
February 9, 2024
I thoroughly enjoyed this essay collection and wrote a full review for the Columbia Journal: https://www.tupeloquarterly.com/revie...
June 8, 2021
Love weird essays. The essay on laughter made me believe in love again. 10/10
April 20, 2022
Imagine the disparate. Do you see a pile of miscellany? Or perhaps you’re a Portuguese or Spanish speaker. Do you see something absurd or trivial? Whichever your mental image, check out the light-hearted essay collection Disparates by Brigham Young University professor Patrick Madden. Learn the rules to Beyond Balderdash, feel the special nostalgia that longs for what never happened, find common ground through laughter, and consider the proposition that, “if at the microscopic level our atoms never quite touch, then maybe words and diseases are all we have to reach one another.”
***
“There is no worse nostalgia than longing for what never happened.”
Laughing is our common ground.
Beyond Balderdash: people (why noteworthy), acronyms, movies (plot), dates (what happened then)
***
“There is no worse nostalgia than longing for what never happened.”
Laughing is our common ground.
Beyond Balderdash: people (why noteworthy), acronyms, movies (plot), dates (what happened then)
March 17, 2023
i read this for my creative writing class, and the author actually came and talked to us (and now i have a signed copy of this book😎). i really enjoyed his essays; lots of variety. he's got a great voice (also singing voice, he sang a few lines of a song in class), and i like how he plays around with form. you can tell he's really smart, but not in an obnoxious way. especially love his uses of themes of music, memory, and language. solid book of essays, and i'm excited to read his other book that he gave us the other day.
January 6, 2022
This book of essays was delightful and unexpected. Madden's simple and clear style is easy to understand. The quirky topics and use of crossword puzzles has helped me expand what an essay can be and the limits of creativity.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews