Summary

“The Bang Bang” follows a middle-aged man named Millind. He enters a bar and is unsure why, as he does not enjoy drinking alcohol. It is 1981. Millind arrived in the United States 20 years earlier with his then pregnant wife. In the bar, there is a stage with a microphone. This New York City bar is called the Bang Bang Poet’s Café. Millind goes up onto the stage and recites a poem he has composed. The people in the bar seem to enjoy the poem. The story is narrated by Millind’s son, who aspired since childhood to be a writer, although Millind often discouraged him from doing so. Sometime after Millind and the narrator fell out of contact with each other, Millind became a renowned poet, and the narrator’s own modest success as a writer was due at...