I've started "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" by Ken Kesey. Well, this is quite a hard journey with a lot of things which refer to a US way of life and are a sort of a puzzle for a non US person. On the other hand Kesey uses present tense instead of past tense for the story flow narration.
Quote Originally Posted by Ken Kesey
I’m mopping near the ward door when a key hits it from the other side and I know it’s the Big Nurse by the way the lockworks cleave to the key, soft and swift and familiar she been around locks so long. She slides through the door with a gust of cold and locks the door behind her and I see her fingers trail across the polished steel — tip of each finger the same color as her lips.
When the book started I thought that the present tense was selected since there is a description of a typical day flow in the mental hospital. But after some pages when the action begins with new patient incoming and disturbing the typical day flow the tense selection has not changed.
Quote Originally Posted by Ken Kesey
McMurphy comes down the line of Chronics, shakes hands with Colonel Matterson and with Ruckly and with Old Pete. He shakes the hands of Wheelers and Walkers and Vegetables, shakes hands that he has to pick up out of laps like picking up dead birds, mechanical birds, wonders of tiny bones and wires that have run down and fallen. Shakes hands with everybody he comes to except Big George the water freak, who grins and shies back from that unsanitary hand, so McMurphy just salutes him and says to his own right hand as he walks away, “Hand, how do you suppose that old fellow knew all the evil you been into?”
Well, is it a typical way to not use the past tense for the story flow or it is just a specific choice for the Kesey's book only?