Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between

"Sparkling prose, glittering insights, lucid thinking and accessible writing about sometimes difficult topics makes Virology a must-read...It's one of the best science and medicine books of the year."

"NYU microbiology professor Osmundson is a literary essayist—his models and polestars are writers like Joan Didion, Susan Sontag, and Eula Biss, though he also thoughtfully critiques their work—as well as a cleareyed science writer...His ability to explicate queer theory and epidemiology allows him to make thoughtful connections between the pandemic and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s...Then as now, he observes, racist responses to outbreaks led to scapegoating, demonization, and needless death; then as now, relationships are redefined by medications and shifting definitions of wellness...The author writes in various modes, from literary criticism to polemic (Andrew Sullivan comes in for particular scorn) to diarist, the last of which is a potent reminder of the uncertainty and fear that came with the arrival of Covid-19...Throughout, Osmundson exposes how a virus reveals societies' connections and bigotries...A welcome, well-informed, queer-positive study of the blind spots a pandemic reveals."

"Microbiologist Osmundson probes the relationship between humans and viruses in this superb essay collection...In 'On War,' Osmundson questions the use of martial rhetoric to describe outbreaks: 'Wars are won through mass death."