Summer of Stephen
Title: “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet”
Publishing Date: 1985 Length: 51 pages Start Date: November 19, 2018 End Date: November 19, 2018 Due to the fact that it’s 51 pages long, I would classify “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet” as a novella, but it was listed as a short story in the collection it was in, so I suppose I’ll take their word for it. This story follows the alcoholic editor of a literary magazine and his slow descent into madness. The editor begins communicating with a man who submitted an amazing short story to the magazine, and the writer slowly convinces the editor that small elf-like creatures live inside his typewriter and help him write his stories. As a writer, and one who still owns two typewriters, this kind of story should be right up my alley. Unfortunately, I barely remembered it. Part of that is because I read it over three years ago. But I looked at my list where I rank King’s works as I read/watch them, and this one is fairly close to the bottom of the short story list. One thing I really liked, though, is the idea of the flexible bullet representing insanity. The character knows that his insanity, like a flexible bullet, will kill him eventually, but he has no idea when it will finally happen or how much damage will occur in the meantime. If you have a decent chunk of time on your hands, you might as well read this one. But if you’d rather hold out for one that’s more exciting, this one might be better to skip.
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Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
July 2019
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