BAADER-MEINHOF SHORT STORY REVIEW

BAADER-MEINHOF SHORT STORY REVIEW - A woman admires a painting in a gallery where she is seated, by herself, in quiet contemplation. Baader-Meinhof by Don DeLilio is filled with dark imagery. Such as the initial painting of a woman’s head with a rope burned neck. Or the mysterious protagonist’s initial comment, to the random unknown man she engages, “they committed suicide or the state killed them”. He tries to pin her down with specific questions but she is vague and elusive every time. Eventually the pair makes it to the snack bar and then to her studio apartment. Once he is there with her something changes and she asks him to leave. He doesn’t and continually asks her to ‘be friends.’ She locks herself inside the bathroom and listens as he makes noises then eventually leaves. She is left with an unsettling sensation that nothing is as it was before. She cant get the association out of her mind. As she goes back to the gallery the next day she sees the man seated along looking at one of the paintings.