"Middle-class American life is defined by relentless competition among families, waged from elite preschools to youth sports to selective universities. The lengths to which parents will go to give their children a leg up have become notorious: ostentatious birthday parties to wow the neighbors, fistfights on the soccer sidelines over playing time, criminal conspiracies to cheat at college admissions. Such excesses make it easy to say that parents...

When a shipyard closes in a Spanish port city, a group of middle-aged men is left spending the days moping. After all, they don't have to worry about what day it is. Santa, Jose, and Lino hang out in the bar Rico opened when he was laid off. They are joined by Amador, a pitiful alcoholic who won't go home, and more occasionally Reina, now a security guard for the local soccer club. A sense of doom hangs over the city, and only a gallows humor brings...