1960s Omaha teems with the brood of the Catholic city, families bred to pack pews, to turn elections, to fill battalions. Wesley Grassford rides to school in a Stingray bicycle gang, feeds the dog, and plays maul-the-man, kids swarming and grappling for a worn leather football until the church bells ring six o'clock and time for dinner. Unknown to the boy, or to the larger community, a group of local men are slipping into a private and unspoken pathology. Their sleeps are barren and dreamless, their outlooks listless and lethargic. Many slip quietly into coma. 2020s America trades in the...