Best Lines from “City of Thieves” by David Benioff
In rather unexpected news I’m not the leader of a Millennial Book Club held at a local brewery, taking over from a librarian who was promoted and left the county. It’s an odd twist of events because when I first heard about it was desperate to go because it sounded so interesting and now I’m in charge! The best part is that my boss cleared me to drink beer so I can fit in with the members! WOOHOO!
Our first book is “City of Thieves” by David Benioff (none other than the co-creator of Game of Thrones), about a young boy and a Russo-German deserter who are sent on a quest to find eggs for the general’s daughter’s upcoming wedding in the middle of the siege of Leningrad. It read SO MUCH like Abbot and Costello and The Odyssey. I fell in love with Lev and Kolya’s witty banter. Can’t wait to hear what people think of it tonight.
1. [on encountering and defeating a couple of cannibals, remembering the skeletons of children they’d seen]
“You really laid her out,”I told Kolya.
“It was a solid shot, wasn’t it? Never hit a woman before, but it seemed like the right move.”
This is the way we decided to talk, free and easy, two young men discussing a boxing match. That was the only way talk. You couldn’t let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn’t admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen. If you opened the door even a centimeter, you would smell the rot outside and hear the screams. You did not open the door. You kept your mind on the tasks of the day, the hunt for food and water and something to burn, and you saved the rest for the end of the war.
2. “You know who’s a vile little cunt?” asked Kolya out of nowhere. “Natasha Rostov.”
The name was familiar, but I couldn’t place it right away.
Sonya frowned but did not look up from her knitting. “The girl in War and Peace?”
“I can’t stand that bitch. Everyone falls in love with her--all of them, even her brothers--and she’s nothing but a vapid twit.”
“Maybe that’s the point,” said Sonya.
I was half asleep but I smiled. In spite of all his irritating qualities. I couldn’t help liking a man who despised a fictional character with such passion.”