Bullet in the Brain Summary & Analysis

Anders visits a bank just before closing time and gets stuck in a line behind two women having a “stupid conversation,” which puts him in a bad mood. This is not unusual for Anders, as he is a quick-tempered book critic, known for his “savagery.”

One of the bank tellers, despite the long line, closes her window early. The two women in front of Anders vocally disapprove and turn to Anders to solicit his commentary. Although he feels a sense of “towering hatred” for the teller, he does not commiserate with the women. Instead, he makes fun of them, thinking they are “presumptuous.”

Shortly afterward, the bank goes silent as two masked men walk in. One of them has a pistol pressed against the bank guard’s neck. They tell everyone to stay silent, or they will be “dead meat.” Hearing this clichéd phrase, Anders make a sarcastic quip to the women he criticized earlier.

One bank robber comments on the closed position and asks about the person who works in that spot. The bank teller who closed her window says it is hers, and the robber threatens her personally. Anders, finding poetic justice in this situation, jokes with the two women that “Justice is done.”

This comment gets one robber’s attention, and he calls Anders a “bright boy,” asking him if he told Anders to talk. When Anders makes another sarcastic comment, saying the nickname is copied from a story by Ernest Hemingway, the robber holds the pistol to Anders’ stomach in warning.

The pistol tickles Anders, and he tries not to laugh. Instead, he looks the robber in the eyes, which are red and raw-looking. For the first time, Anders begins to feel a “sense of unease.” Anders’s direct stare prompts the criminal to ask if he’s being flirtatious, and Anders denies it. The robber uses the pistol to tilt Anders’s head to look at the bank’s painted ceiling.

Anders begins to study the ceiling, which is covered in a mural depicting classical figures from history, such as the Greek god Zeus. Anders finds the mural tasteless, and his facial expression registers this disdain.

The robber, seeing this expression, asks Anders if he thinks the robber is “comical.” Anders answers, “No,” and the robber continues to interrogate him, asking if Anders thinks he is “some kind of clown.” The robber then threatens Anders, saying that if he continues to mess around, he is “history,” and then asks, “Capiche?”

Anders, upon hearing this clichéd gangster speech, cannot stop himself from laughing. In retaliation, the robber raises the gun and shoots Anders in the head.

The bullet starts to travel through Anders’s brain, starting a chain of “neurotransmissions” in Anders’s mind. The narration describes scenes from his past that Anders doesn’t remember in this moment, which feature various people from Anders’s life that once mattered to him. There is Sherry, a past girlfriend, and his wife; both women eventually came to “irritate” him.

The bullet continues to travel through Anders’s head. Another scene from his youth that he doesn't remember unfurls, featuring one of his college professors reciting work by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. Anders was so moved by the recitation that his “eyes burned.” Anders also once read one of his classmate’s novels, and felt deep respect for the writer, even though his current career as a critic has led him to resent writers and their books.

Finally, Anders remembers a scene from his childhood “forty years past.” In this scene, he is participating in a summertime baseball game in his neighborhood. The boys of the neighborhood are arguing over which baseball player is better, Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays.

As the argument continues, two new boys arrive to join the game. One of them is named Coyle, and the other is Coyle’s cousin, from Mississippi. Anders has never met Coyle’s cousin, and will “never see” him again after the game ends. The neighborhood boys ask Coyle’s cousin what position he wants to play in the game.

Coyle’s cousin says he wants to play shortstop, because it is the best position “they is.” This mispronunciation, a consequence of the cousin’s Southern accent, startles Anders. In fact, Anders is so intrigued by the mispronunciation that he wants Coyle’s cousin to “repeat what he's just said.” Realizing, however, that asking him to repeat it will make Anders look like “a jerk” to the other boys, Anders refrains from saying anything.

Still, Anders is “elated” by the mispronunciation. He appreciates the way the those “two words” sound, relishing their “unexpectedness and their music.” When he runs out onto the field, he says them quietly “to himself.”

While this memory is playing out, the bullet is still traveling through Anders’s brain, bringing him closer to his inevitable death. But Anders’s memory of his childhood baseball game gives him time to relive his happier past and to recapture his innocence. In his memory, he is still a boy in the outfield, playing baseball and repeating, “They is, they is, they is.”