Throughout the entire novel, we know almost every thought going through Howie's head, but it takes more than just hearing his thoughts to know who he is. The moment, where he is baffled by the thought that someone could show so much hostility towards life, really gives us a glance at what a complicated character Howie really is. He has all these strange thoughts and memories, that we get to learn about, in the back of his mind, but not a lot of them show much emotion. In this passage, Howie shows the reader that although some of these memories and thoughts are not so good, generally, he has a great appreciation for life and everything that surrounds him. It's not the fact that he disagrees with Aurelius, but it's with what passion he disagrees. Howie is the kind of person that notices every detail from his childhood and can remember everything, whereas Aurelius' quote is basically saying that life isn't that great and nothing is that memorable.
I don't think that the book necessarily had a slow start, because it didn't really go anywhere, I think it just takes a while for the reader to get into Howie's mindset and get used to his thought process. Once I was able to do that, I really enjoyed the novel.
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