How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
There were three mirrors. I was exposed to parts of myself I hadn't seen in years. Despite my grief, I took a moment to examine them. (4.38)
Although grief might normally (as in the case of Alma's mother) cause someone to neglect the superficial world of appearances, Leo is forced to observe his age and consider his own impending death.
Quote #5
I took a drink, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, repeating the gesture that was made a hundred times by my father and his father and his father's father, eyes half closed as the sharpness of the alcohol replaced the sharpness of grief. (4.47)
It remains ambiguous whether Leo is remembering his ancestor's taste for alcohol, or feeling connected to them through the understanding that each of them had to cope with grief about their own family members at some point.
Quote #6
I went upstairs. With every door and cabinet and drawer I opened, I learned something new about Isaac, and with each new thing I learned, his absence became more real, and the more real, the more impossible to believe. (10.31)
Leo hopes to console himself by connecting more deeply to the son he never knew. But the greater intimacy only makes him grieve more.