The Sterile Cuckoo

by John Nichols · first published 1965

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!

Summary: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Original language:

English

Year page:

1965