Lunch with Charlotte Quotes

“The startling truth was that they were members of a unique group known as Schindlerjüden, the name given to the hundreds of men, women, and children who were saved from the camps by the Nazi businessman, Oskar Schindler, and since made famous by the Steven Spielberg movie, Schindler’s List.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“spring of 1915, nearly a year after the start of the Great War, when a stocky, prematurely balding serviceman arrived on leave in the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s grandiose capital of Vienna. His name was Jakob Georg Goldberger, and it was on that afternoon that he first glimpsed and fell instantly in love with a high school girl, Franzi Gutmann, thirteen years his junior. Was it sordid? Just another tiresome example of male foolishness? Or was it more romantic, a lonely soldier searching for innocence in a misery-soaked world? Raised”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“nearby New York or distant Beijing, but whenever I was in town, I’d call to say I was on my way. Each time I’d arrive, she’d already have covered half the dining room table with the kind of items I only seemed to consume with her. They were a reflection of her more traditional fare from the old world — hard-boiled eggs, pickled cucumbers, herring in brine, black bread and cream cheese. We’d supplement this with ethnic staples”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“good, thanks.” “Is it strong enough?”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“Was it possible that, even unconscious, she’d waited until we’d gone in order to preserve her last shred of dignity, to don the mask one last time? As I stood by her bed, I must confess the thought occurred to me, and whether or not such things happen, I can definitely say that it would have been characteristic of her to do so.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“It was so unpredictable, so much like one of Sadie’s old quips, that I just broke up laughing, and so did she. That’s how I’d like to remember that evening, because it was the last time we spoke.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“Listen, stop worrying so much. If I make it, I make it… and if not, what can I say? It’s been nice knowing you.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“On one of these occasions, I accompanied Charlotte to hear him talk and found his hour-long presentation to be both moving and absorbing. When he asked for questions, the first was inevitably about the movie. “How accurate was it?” At this, he smiled, replying that Liam Neeson, the Irish actor who played the title role, was taller and more handsome than the real Oskar Schindler; also that the Russians who appeared at the end hadn’t arrived on horseback, they had come in a truck. Apart from those minor details, he said, the entire portrayal was uncannily close to what had occurred, and he congratulated Mr. Spielberg on having done such a fine job.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“She liked the news, of course, and was profoundly moved when they announced that the much-loved king, George VI, had died and was about to be succeeded by his eighteen-year-old heir, Elizabeth. The announcers tried to herald the change as “the birth of a new Elizabethan Age,” but Charlotte wasn’t even aware of the first one and had to go look it up in the library.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“It was more like she was just one of the crowd, someone who joined in the fun but never shone brightly enough as an individual to be appreciated.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte

“All she knew of war was the patriotic propaganda the government posted, which was full of such imagery: men at the front with chiseled features, standing firm, rifles at the ready, while their loved ones displayed unbounded joy on receiving news of their brave exploits.”
― Leon Berger, Lunch with Charlotte