The M.D.

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The M.D.: A Horror Story (1991) is Thomas M. Disch's second Supernatural Minnesota novel. Sharing some of its setting and time period with The Businessman—but with different background details, and more speculative elements in a near-future part of the story—it describes the rise and fall of Billy Michaels, a medical doctor with horribly dangerous magic powers over health and disease.

Major characters

Epigram

Chapter 1

Sister Mary Symphorosa

Named after a 2nd century martyr. Disch wrote in "My Life as a Child" that this abusive character and her crusade against Santa Claus were based on a nun who taught him in kindergarten at St. Paul's Convent School in Fairmont, Minnesota, where there was also a Sister Fidelis.^[1]

When meat isn't properly preserved

This passage foreshadows two important events later in the book, one involving contaminated meat, the other about an effective way to preserve corpses.

Chapter 2

Mrs. Obstschmecker

Her last name in German means "fruit-taster." Of the real-life inspiration for this character, Disch wrote that "Grandma Disch was resurrected to play the role of Grandma Obstschmecker."^[2] However, whereas his own grandmother punished her daughter for marrying a divorced man by never speaking to her again, Mrs. O. is somewhat more forgiving (or at least less assertive) and expresses her disapproval of Madge's marriage only passive-aggressively.

the entire length of Calumet

The same fictional street where Joy-Ann Anker lives in The Businessman.

Chapter 3

Nabisco Hill

Actually a neighborhood in Chicago.

when they got Dutch Elm disease

See The Businessman.

Billy could only see things this other way

One of two hints (the other being in chapter 6) that Billy has either an innate psychic gift or a neurological disease even before he makes his deal with Mercury.

Chapter 5

Father Windakiewiczowa