David Margolis 
Meltdown and Other Covid Stories 

Who better to write about the Covid pandemic than a retired physician, a prime target for the deadly virus? 

Dr. David Margolis wrote these tales during the worst time of the pandemic, cooped up in a house with only his imagination as a guest. He has produced a remarkable collection of stories, combining sadness and loss with medical knowledge and distinctive humor

The protagonist of the first story is a superstitious old woman who believes that Covid was sent by the devil and who can prove that it wasn’t? We read about a muddled septuagenarian whose imaginary friend from childhood replaces his dead wife. There’s an autobiographical sketch written by the virus itself, a play by play description concerning the invasion of Dave’s nose. There’s a sad dog with large hairy ears who waits for his master to return after he’s taken away on a stretcher. We encounter a klatch of washed-up Gods sipping coffee in the heavens, who kvetch about irreverent humans and are delighted that the Covid has come. There’s a misogynist sinner whose ashes are taken to a rundown cemetery and dumped in a cluster of weeds. The final story,  Meltdown, is a dystopian tale about a super virulent Covid virus that kills most of the Earth’s population, leaving only a few desperate humans to argue amongst themselves.