Customer Reviews

The M.D.

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Young Billy lives with his father and stepmother and younger half-brother Ned. Billy is a loner, and different from other children. He thinks a lot, and has a greater imagination. He also has a streak of meanness, and when he is given a magical stick, with a dead bird tied to it, he finds that he can make things happen. Occasionally, Billy will make something good happen, but most of the time his desires, in the form of poems, are mischievous to downright cruel. After crippling his brother, causing his Grandma's hair to fall out, and stopping his step-mother from drinking by making her vomit every time she tastes alcohol. Billy's odd obsession with bizarre games in his mind, starting with bowling pin armies and ending with his visions over the stick, fuel his imagination and need to keep using his "powers". He gifts members of his family with good health, but his father dies in an accident. Staying with his stepmother, he becomes a Doctor and has an affair with his step-sister, and decides that as a medical professional he can use his "magic". But, will he use it for the good of mankind, or will his tendency towards cruelty lead him down a more sinister path? Only the "confusion" at the end of the story stops this from being a 5 star book, it just seemed a little like Mr. Disch didn't quite know how to finish it.
This is a great book, jumping large time frames at times, and long on prose occasionally, but still manages to be a quick read for medical thriller lovers.

The M.D. is beautifully written horror ... after enjoying it thoroughly, I lent it to the 12 year old nephew, who plowed through all 600+ pages. I loved Disch as a sci-fi novelist, but his horror show will keep you up at night and give you the willies

The first four parts of this book were superbly done. I mean, Disch did an excellent job telling this story, but then the fifth part came. It was a major letdown. Disch couldn't "close the deal." Maybe if he had started the story off in this future he had created, it would have been a better ending, though i think it would have been better if he had just kept on the same vein he was in. Disch was trying to go for a deeper shock value, a deeper sense of outrage and wrong, but his style in the final section of the book just didn't keep up with the rest of the story.

Thomas M. Disch, The M.D. (Berkley, 1991)

There's a scene about halfway through The M.D. that really shows why Thomas M. Disch, though not a household name in letters, is revered by critics and discerning bibliophiles. I'm usually the harshest of reviewers when it comes to message fiction, that strain of writing where the plot is stopped in order for the writer to advance a point of view. But there's a debate here between a tobacco advocacy group executive and a bright thirteen-year-old boy that is so sparkling, not to mention well-written, that it's actually one of the best parts of the book. And I don't even agree with the viewpoint that wins. Of course, this could be because unlike most message fiction, Disch actually manages to make this debate integral to the plot. Yes, I mean integral; it sets up a couple of things that aren't exactly plot points, but that the whole framework of the fourth part of the book rests on. This isn't just some guy ranting, it's some guy who's plotted his book out in such detail that he knows exactly how far he can go with this diatribe and still get away with it. That's the mark of a master, and make no mistake about it--Thomas M. Disch defines "master". He's like the Einsturzende Neubauten of American writers; not well-known by the public, but hugely influential among those who do the same thing he does.

The M.D. is the story of Billy, who is six years old and stuck in Catholic primary school as we start the book. After being told by a nun that Santa Claus doesn't exist, Billy contradicts her--after all, he's seen Santa Claus with his own two eyes. This exchange ends with Billy being sent to the office, but he never gets there. Instead, he runs away (without his coat in the middle of winter) to his private place, a secluded part of the local park, where we find out that maybe Billy isn't kidding, for Santa Claus appears to him again and promises that he's going to tell Billy a secret sometime soon. And when he does, this time appearing in the guise of the god Mercury, what a secret it is. Billy's annoying older brother Ned has created a makeshift caduceus in order to terrorize Billy; he took two twined sticks and tied a dead bird to them. Not your classic caduceus, to be sure, but where the sign of Mercury exists, he can invest it with power. And he bequeaths the caduceus to Billy, who can use it to heal. But it has a finite amount of energy. In order to replenish it, Billy must also make things sick...

This is your basic three-wishes story, but unlike most stories of this type, we have a thoughtful protagonist who actually learns from his mistakes as he goes along. That alone would make it worth your time, for it's one of the few innovations that could make such a clichéd storyline worth reading again. But Disch writes with an eye to, well, just about everything. We often love writers for doing one thing exceptionally well; Stephen King's absolute mastery of characterization, Dorothy Dunnett's intricate plotting, James Michener's meticulous research. Disch has taken all of the ways in which a writer can specialize and balanced them. It all works here, and it all works exceptionally. My only problem with the book is something that couldn't have been foreseen in 1991; he sets the fourth part of the book in 1999, and as usual with such things, what it looks like on paper and what it actually looked like are such different things that I can't help laughing at it. Also, as you might expect from some of my comments above, Disch tends towards fairy tale-style language here. Most of the time it's not at all intrusive, and it lends the book an interesting, amusing tone for being the drama/medical thriller novel that it is. Once we get into the fourth section, though, and head into the world of fantasy/sci-fi, the mix falls flat. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the recent steampunk and mythpunk books that have done it so perfectly, but that part of the book doesn't work as well as the first three. Still, the obscurity into which this book has fallen is a crime. Not surprising, given that Disch is not the literary rockstar he deserves to be, but saddening anyway. Find a copy and discover, or rediscover, the wonderful world of Tom Disch. *** ½

Its funny but its true it takes a while to enjoy this book but after a while i really liked it.
So many things happen in the book, Disch made me wonder what would happen if there was really something like a magic staff.
What would i do with such power.

For me it is a book with some really new interesting things and plots.
I am sure i will read this book again and again

This is the only book i have read by Disch but if he has more horror stories like this i will definitely read them.

groetjes from Holland

This scared me more than anything I have read by Stephen King. Mercury is a spine-tingling villian. Recommended, but you may sleep with the lights on.

The book was mildy interesting. I'm glad I actually finished it. Its about a boy named Billy who has a large imagination. He discovers a magical stick that allows him t o cast spells in rhyme. Billy is an introspective child and incredibly intelligent. The story skips years as we journey through Billy's life and his family members as they are affected by his magic, some times for good, often times for worse. The title, the M.D. really is a m isnomer as the book really isn't at all about an M.D.
There also does seem to be quite a bit of social commentary.The ending is a bit all over the place because a lot of new characters get thrown in and just a lot of crazy things start happening. I still enjoyed the book.

The Greek god gave 6 year old Billy a magic stick that could heal or kill.He made bad things happen to his Granny and his brother. Bad things happen to his parents and he lives with relatives whose daughter has Billy's son, Judge, a crazy. Billy becomes a Doctor and finds a cure for Aids but creates a far worse plague, ORVIDS. Bad things eventually happen to Billy and Judge takes over and I can't believe I really waded through this book.

I found this book to be quite disjointed and difficult to read. The plot follows along reasonably well, but it doesn't seem to have a whole heck of a lot to do with the synopsis on the back cover, or with the title at all. I was hoping for a good scare (as the subtitle even states it's a horror novel), but it's more... social conscience horror, not scary horror. An awful lot of time is spent describing events that don't seem to add anything to the story. The whole thing could probably have been told in ten or twenty pages. Very disappointing!

The story is OK, but the writing is ... well, boring. I am not the kind of reader who requires a lot of action, but I do need the language to speak to me. Otherwise, why not just read the plot summary? Disch seems to think that his personal distaste for his characters (Catholics, racists, facists, and self-serving people of all stripes) is by itself adequate to captivate the reader, but he doesn't write with a style that connects with me emotionally. He has a kind of deadpan approach that doesn't work well for subtlety or understatement in the context of a novel. His sense of evil is sincere, but lacks drama. I am sorry I spent the time with this book, and recommend that you don't bother with it.