The Vicious Circulation of Dr Catastrope

A bitter doctor unfairly accused and sent to prison, an
old and ornery Frenchman in Louisiana who just wants
people to leave him and his lawn alone, a paranoid ex-
crooner trying to mount a comeback in the age of
human jukeboxes, a disgruntled academic whose
career is being sabotaged, and a Rabelaisian narrator
who has united them all in a tavern tale.