{"product_id":"disparates-essays-paperback-softback-9781496202444","title":"Disparates; Essays (Paperback \/ softback) 9781496202444","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eDisparates\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eEssays\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003ePatrick Madden (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781496202444\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 1 April 2020\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e186 pages, 23 photographs, 25 illustrations, 5 word search puzzles\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.32 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\"If you love the personal essay, or are open to learning to love it, the freewheeling, luminous, disparate Patrick Madden is well worth the time.\"-David Kirkham, \u003ci\u003eLit Pub\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eDisparates \u003c\/i\u003ehonors the futile and the essential in both content and form. Don’t read this collection if you hate essays, especially lyric essays, or dislike being reminded that you are reading an essay. Nor should you read this book if you demand a point and feel slighted to learn that 'life doesn’t always happen in the best order or with the best details.' This is a book for those who appreciate amusement and 'raucous play.' As for me-a life-long student of essays, and a teacher of them-I’ll be turning to \u003ci\u003eDisparates \u003c\/i\u003eas a model for a long time to come.\"-Rachel Rueckert, \u003ci\u003eTupelo Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"Madden’s essays offer relief-they offer laughter, provoke pondering, and delight in playfulness. . . . \u003ci\u003eDisparates\u003c\/i\u003e delights in the world and celebrates the essay. It was a joy to read.\"-Natalie Johansen, \u003ci\u003eBrevity\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"The writing is playful and marked by humility, with Madden often inviting readers-and other writers-into the narrative. A capable collection of writing that continually reviews itself.\"-\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"'Disparates' are 'things so unlike that there is no basis for comparison.' There is surely no basis for comparison of these essays to any other book I've read.\"-Linda Marshall, \u003ci\u003ePop Matters\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e “Patrick Madden has made a career championing the essay-its traditions, its tenets, and its opportunities. In this, his third collection, Madden masterfully demonstrates a crucial (and often overlooked) element of the form-raucous play-in each smart, active piece. \u003ci\u003eDisparates\u003c\/i\u003e plays constantly: with shape, with subject, with language; it even plays well with others in several lively collaborations. I savored this collection over several days like it was a sampler of fine candy . . . and then I found twenty bucks.”-Elena Passarello, author of \u003ci\u003eAnimals Strike Curious Poses\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“You’re in for a treat picking up Pat Madden’s \u003ci\u003eDisparates\u003c\/i\u003e, a book that doubles down so hard on its disparity it ends up holding together in surprising ways. Madden is maniacal in his fidelity to found forms (eBay auction listing, OED definition, literary translation, wordfind puzzle, etc.) and seemingly bad ideas (composing an essay by machine-learned predictive text, writing pangram haiku, discussing the band Rush), but due to his prodigious enthusiasm and intelligence he lands more jumps than not. My favorite feature of \u003ci\u003eDisparates\u003c\/i\u003e seems at first like the book’s worst idea: most of these essays feature other writers in guest spots. The overall effect is that of a perforated, collaborative self, manifesting exactly the kind of generosity and playfulness we could use a lot more of in literary nonfiction.”-Ander Monson, author of \u003ci\u003eI Will Take the Answer\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003eDisparates\u003c\/i\u003e is a generous romp of a book. Patrick Madden’s essays open windows onto glee and silliness as well as grief and love. In forms as wide-ranging as Balderdash, wordsearch, Strunk and White’s \u003ci\u003eThe Elements of Style\u003c\/i\u003e, and James Brady’s bygone \u003ci\u003eParade\u003c\/i\u003e feature “In Step With…,” Madden shows us again, as in his previous books, that the daily stuff of life sings out for examination and play. Read with an eye peeled for: Dr. Demento, the Jackalope, pahoehoe lava, and the important reminder that ‘Laughter is a taste of your own medicine’. ‘Whenever I fix\/ my quips to the jazzy world,\/ I come back agape,’ he writes. After reading \u003ci\u003eDisparates\u003c\/i\u003e, I feel the same: changed, alive to surprise, comforted, dazzled.”-Joni Tevis, author of \u003ci\u003eThe World Is on Fire\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“You cannot help but read Madden’s essays and grin at his deadpan maniacal love for detail and life and kids and anecdotes and wrinkles in the fabric of nominal reality. The guy is obsessed with nominal reality and all the shimmers and windows in it. A terrific essayist, and even better, wholly and utterly unique-there really isn’t an essayist today who writes like this, I think, and for all Madden’s worshipping of Montaigne, Madden’s more interesting and absorbing and funny. Heresy! But it’s true.”-the late Brian Doyle, author of \u003ci\u003eOne Long River of Song\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e15 Bytes Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Gold Medal Winner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In English \u003ci\u003edisparate\u003c\/i\u003e means “different” or “miscellaneous”-apt descriptors of these essays by Patrick Madden. In Spanish, however, \u003ci\u003edisparate\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDisparates\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e 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.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\/disparate\/    \u003cbr\u003e Writer Michael Martone’\u003cbr\u003es Leftover Water: Imbibe literary genius (dozens of authors) in one swig!    \u003cbr\u003e Nostalgia (feat. Lawrence Sutin)    \u003cbr\u003e Insomnia (feat. Lina MarÍ\u003cbr\u003ea Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas)    \u003cbr\u003e Unpredictable Essays    \u003cbr\u003e Laughter (feat. Jericho Parms)    \u003cbr\u003e Order    \u003cbr\u003e Memorizing the Lyrics    \u003cbr\u003e Repast    \u003cbr\u003e Happiness (feat. Amy Leach)     \u003cbr\u003e Memory    \u003cbr\u003e Alfonsina y el Mar    \u003cbr\u003e Mea Culpa    \u003cbr\u003e Expectations (feat. Desirae Matherly)     \u003cbr\u003e Freewill (feat. Joe Oestreich)     \u003cbr\u003e In Step with . . . Montaigne (feat. David Lazar)     \u003cbr\u003e Timing    \u003cbr\u003e Inertia    \u003cbr\u003e Thumbs (feat. Elena Passarello \u0026amp;\u003cbr\u003e Wendy S. Walters)    \u003cbr\u003e Smells (feat. Stephen Haynie)    \u003cbr\u003e The Proverbial __________    \u003cbr\u003e Poetry    \u003cbr\u003e Old Time Rock and Roll (feat. Michael Martone)    \u003cbr\u003e The Arrogance of Style    \u003cbr\u003e Distance (feat. Joni Tevis)    \u003cbr\u003e Beat on the Brat    \u003cbr\u003e Against the Wind    \u003cbr\u003e Pangram Haiku \u003cbr\u003e Plums (feat. Matthew Gavin Frank)     \u003cbr\u003e Solstice    \u003cbr\u003e Listening (feat. Mary Cappello)     \u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52599881138456,"sku":"9781496202444","price":16.97,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/disparates-essays-paperback-softback-9781496202444","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}