Review by Booklist Review
The essays in this unusual collection focus on the immense impact that viruses exert on human life, from health to relationships, culture, society, and even metaphors ("going viral"). Particular attention is paid to HIV and COVID-19. For starters, viruses are the most plentiful form of life on the planet. They are all around us and within us. They're hardy microorganisms and creepy, too. Not exactly alive or dead, viruses only "yearn" to replicate. Biologist Osmundson calls them "little genetic machines with one goal in mind: to copy themselves." While sharing intimate details of his personal life, he ponders issues of identity and queerness, fear and risk, disease and inequity, destruction and symbiosis. Sprinkled in the essays are quotes from such writers as Susan Sontag, James Baldwin, and Joan Didion. One notable chapter, "On Endings," suggests rethinking health and illness as not two distinct realms but rather a "quantum state of sick/well." Microorganisms rule our world. Best to coexist with viruses whenever possible. But we must do battle with the disease-causing kinds, and vaccines, public health measures, and preparation do provide a potent defense.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Microbiologist Osmundson (Capsid) probes the relationship between humans and viruses in this superb essay collection. "On Replication" reminds that, while "there are 250 million viruses in every 0.001 liter of ocean water," they can't replicate on their own. In "On War," Osmundson questions the use of martial rhetoric to describe outbreaks: "Wars are won through mass death. A virus will never be dominated," he suggests, recommending an approach to quarantine and social distancing that's based on care and community. "On Going Viral" is a sharp look at "viral" content online, in which Osmundson makes a case that "most viruses do nothing. How boring, how painfully banal." "On Endings" is a moving reflection on the HIV epidemic, in which Osmundson considers how "queer people provide a model... for living rightly in a wrong world." Indeed, throughout, he cannily interweaves queer theory and science: "Queer childhood is waiting for the possibility to be--to make--one's full self. Quarantine is putting the full possibility of social relations--one way to make oneself with others--on hold out of respect for the desire of living beings to keep on living," he writes in "On Risk." Original and bubbling with curiosity, this is a masterful achievement. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In his second book, Osmundson (microbiology, New York Univ.; Inside/Out) pulls from his PhD in microbiology and his life growing up queer in the United States to publish a series of essays on viruses, HIV, COVID, lockdowns, being gay, and the dangers of racialized whiteness. In short, he offers a series of essays on love, good food, and life. Narrating his own book, Osmundson voices his meandering thoughts during the lockdown as only he could, effectively communicating excitement, enthusiasm, and despair. His narration is so affecting that after hearing some of his more painful essays, listeners may find themselves wanting to reach out and see if he is okay. Osmundson explains viruses to readers, making this potentially dry and academic topic understandable and even enjoyable. He goes on to chronicle his fears and frustrations as the pandemic unfolded, drawing parallels between the COVID pandemic and the HIV epidemic, as well as the emotional fallout from each. VERDICT Osmundson brings passion and emotion into these thoughtful and insightful essays while presenting citable facts to back up his point of view. This is one biology lesson readers won't want to skip.--Laura Trombley
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A gay biologist looks at the Covid-19 pandemic through the lenses of queerness and social justice. 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 notes how war metaphors deployed during outbreaks--e.g., likening essential workers or the sick as "heroes"--have long been ethically fraught, giving people license to treat marginalized victims as acceptable losses. "Unexamined Whiteness" in medicine and media tends to make the virus deadlier for minority communities, and capitalism only exacerbates the problem. Osmundson humanizes this dynamic by thoughtfully shifting from his own personal experience--in relationships, at sex clubs, in an activist Covid-19 research group--to the bigger picture of the pandemic. His writing about viruses themselves can be technical, but he adds an emotional valence, approaching them as undiscriminating, common to all human beings. 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. "Where we place our bodies, and with whom, is a biological choice," he writes, "and a moral and political one." A welcome, well-informed, queer-positive study of the blind spots a pandemic reveals. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
