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bibliocyclist's review
3.0
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.”
marenloveland's review against another edition
5.0
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.
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