The Sterile Cuckoo (novel)
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 First edition cover | |
| Author | John Nichols |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Vivian Berger |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Comedy novel |
| Publisher | David McKay Co. (US) & Heinemann (UK) |
Publication date | 1965 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 210 (hardback first edition) |
The Sterile Cuckoo is a 1965 novel by John Nichols. It tells the story of a quirky young couple – eccentric, imaginative Pookie Adams and conventional, unimaginative Jerry Payne – whose relationship deepens despite their differences, but eventually falls apart. It is largely set at an eastern college in the early 1960s.
The title comes from a nonsense poem that Pookie writes near the end of the novel, after she and Jerry have made a suicide pact:
Oh, Hi-ho in the Lavender Woods / A Sterile Cuckoo is crying;
Oh, Hi-ho in the Lavender Woods / A Sterile Cuckoo is dying;
Cuckoo! Cuckoo! / Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
In the real dark night of the soul it's always three o'clock in the morning. (F. S. Fitz[gerald] – P. Adams)[1]
