Short storyYes, I liked it ... though I'm learning I'm not a fan of the short story. If I focus solely on the writing, I do best - none of that "I want more to it."Like the family in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" "Bullet in the Brain" has its main character Anders in the wrong place at the wrong time. Violence ensues, in part due to Anders being an obnoxious SOB. Still the reader learns Anders - good and bad - through what doesn't pass through his mind and what does as his life ends. This is, by far, my favorite short story of all time (well, tied with "We Never"). Though, typically, I find it difficult for me to grow attached to a short story's characters (due in part to the limited quantity of pages in which I am provided with to experience them), this was not difficult at all in this work. The main character is completely fleshed out--to the point where he rises from the text as more than a mere bundle of words, and begins to breathe.PLOT SUMMARY:A jaded, angry, hateful little man is trapped in the spates of traffic in a bank. Bank gets robbed. Man, unable to contorl himself, begins to talk back to and berate the robbers--not as a testament to his own bravery in the face of evil, no, but because he is actually incapable of stopping himself. Thus, the story becomes eponymous: he becomes our titular "bullet in the brain" character.As the bullet enters, we are given a panoramic view of this man's life: his experiences, his education, his marriages, his affairs, his implied reasons for being jaded--all of the final thoughts he was expected to have as his life proverbially "flashed before his eyes." But, no. Instead, his final thoughts in that blip of time before the bullet severs his brain are of a time before he became this rude man--a memory that had previously slipped by him, albeit is symbolic of the boy this man once was. This final thought is a treasure trove of hidden meaning and thought-provoking insight. It's absolutely amazing. The writing style is realistic and it reels you in; the final line of the story is haunting, though it leaves you fulfilled.
What do You think about Bullet In The Brain (2000)?
Probably one of my favorite short (really short) stories.
—audgator
