
Bullet in the Brain
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Narrated by:
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Anthony Heald
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By:
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Tobias Wolff
About this listen
The story of a book critic and his final thoughts from short-story master Tobias Wolff...
Anders is an angry, cynical man. A book critic known for his scathing reviews, he finds any excuse to dismiss, belittle, or insult. This afternoon is no more agitating than the next. Angers finds himself in a long line at the bank, waiting to reach a teller. Even after two men - wearing masks and carrying guns - take control of the building, Anders is unfazed. It's this behavior that lands him with a pistol against his stomach and a man screamingin his face. And when the bank robber, indignant over Anders' behavior, shoots the book critic in the head, his mind floats through the memories of his life, settling on one particular event....
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Hmmm
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Sanity
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The Rich Brother
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A classic tale of brotherly love and rivalry from short story master Tobias Wolff. Pete has always been successful. Happily married with two daughters, he lives a comfortable life in Santa Cruz. Pete is a practical, hardworking man and he enjoys life's monetary pleasures. His younger brother, Donald, is a gaunt, troubled man. Unmarried and without children, Donald earns what little money he has by occasionally painting houses. He's a religious man, unlike Pete, and has spent several years as a member of various Christian groups.
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Determined to fit in at his New England prep school, the narrator has learned to mimic the bearing and manners of his adoptive tribe while concealing as much as possible about himself. His final year, however, unravels everything he’s achieved and steers his destiny in directions no one could have predicted.
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listen to this
- By Surf on 11-18-20
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Performance
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By: Tobias Wolff
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Sanity
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
April's father, a psychology professor, has had a breakdown and has landed in the Alta Vista State Hospital. Her stepmother, Claire, is just waiting for him to get out so she can leave on a trip to Italy - a trip April is worried Claire won't come back from. She needs Claire, at least until she finishes high school. She needs her not just as a companion but as a worldly woman who can tell April about men and their desires…men far different from her boyfriend, Stuart.
-
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Weird and boring
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By: Tobias Wolff
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- Length: 35 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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A classic tale of brotherly love and rivalry from short story master Tobias Wolff. Pete has always been successful. Happily married with two daughters, he lives a comfortable life in Santa Cruz. Pete is a practical, hardworking man and he enjoys life's monetary pleasures. His younger brother, Donald, is a gaunt, troubled man. Unmarried and without children, Donald earns what little money he has by occasionally painting houses. He's a religious man, unlike Pete, and has spent several years as a member of various Christian groups.
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boaring
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Overall
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Performance
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-
-
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By: Tobias Wolff
-
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- Narrated by: Dan Cashman
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Determined to fit in at his New England prep school, the narrator has learned to mimic the bearing and manners of his adoptive tribe while concealing as much as possible about himself. His final year, however, unravels everything he’s achieved and steers his destiny in directions no one could have predicted.
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listen to this
- By Surf on 11-18-20
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Overall
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Wolff here returns with fresh revelations - about biding one's time, or experiencing first love, or burying one's mother - that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. A retired Marine enrolls in college while her son trains for Iraq. A lawyer takes a difficult deposition. An American in Rome indulges the Gypsy who's picked his pocket.
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Great
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Great.
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Instead of beginning by describing the thoughts that go through the narrator’s head as the bullet enters, Wolff adds a lot of history in what was not thought of. So many memories he expected that would flash in front of his eyes were passed over, and by opening that to the reader, we can see the history of Anders.
They often ask what the payoff is to a story, and we get not only a single scene of a man standing in line and being shot in the head, but how a writer, a true artist, can weave in a single scene a man being murdered at a bank, summarizing his life by what doesn’t cross his mind, and showing us what led him to this moment where he puts himself in a situation to die.
Such a Perfect Short Story
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Favorite reading of a favorite masterpiece
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They is; they is......
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Great short story.
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A bullet point of a story.
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A perfect short story. Perfect.
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Unnecessary "Adult Content"
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This is a story about the last moments of a rather hum-drum critic who is more than a little stuck on himself. His actions and inability to curb his own tongue get him shot. The author presents what could or should have gone through the critic’s mind while he was dying (other than the bullet), and wraps up by telling us what did go through his mind instead. He gives us the “why” behind it as well. Truly food for thought where those last few seconds of life are concerned. Maybe we won’t think at all of what we think we will!
Surprising, in a good way.
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Exactly what it sounds like
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