The Devil in Silver

This book, by Victor Lavalle, is the story of Pepper, a 40ish man working as a furniture mover, who gets admitted to New Hyde, a low-budget mental hospital, on a 72-hour psychiatric hold.  Trying to help his girlfriend with his fists, he fights with her ex-boyfriend and punches a couple of cops in the process.  The cops bring him to New Hyde since it is easier to get him admitted there than take him down to the station, and they don't want to work unpaid overtime.  Predictably, the 72-hour hold lasts for weeks and weeks.  Pepper learns to view the other patients with compassion, friendship, even love, and comes to see that even in the psych unit you can fulfill your destiny.  This is a fine meditation on what it means to bloom where you're planted  Recommended highly.