Ignatz

Glenn Wheelan returns to San Miguel expecting familiarity, but instead finds his hometown enthralled by a bizarre new therapy: Mr. Balderstone's method of turning into a cat for relaxation and renewal. What unsettles Glenn most is not just the practice itself, but how quickly the town has embraced it as harmless, fashionable, and even civic-minded, while his former love, Karen Wylie, dismisses his outrage and sees real benefit in it. Shocked into action, Glenn launches an anti-lycanthropy campaign, only to discover that polite bureaucracy and cheerful resistance are harder to defeat than open hostility. Chief Harold Neff, calm and persuasive, defends the cat-turning movement as good for San Miguel, leaving Glenn increasingly isolated as he tries letters, leaflets, and plans for a sound truck to rally opposition. But every effort is blocked or brushed aside, and when Karen admits she has visited Balderstone's temple herself and feels better for it, Glenn's disgust hardens into stubborn resolve. As satire, social conformity, and surreal civic enthusiasm collide, one man wages a lonely war against a town that has made the strange seem perfectly normal. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.