Introduction: pp.xi-xxiii
This section is one of the only sections written entirely by one person. A good number of themes are introduced here that will be significant throughout the book; it's a good "orientation" of sorts to the rest of the text.
xi The question of fate appears: “...that fateful evening. (Is that right? fate? It sure as hell wasn’t –ful. Or was it exactly that?)” Johnny will continue to wonder throughout the text what would have happened if he had done something differently, whether if would even be possible to change the course of events. The theme of fate is often present in the larger text as well.
xv Gouges are found in the floor next to Zampanò's body. HoL toys frequently with the boundaries between real and unreal. One way is through physical manifestations of what seems to be in one's mind. Was what Zampanò was attempting to protect himself from imaginary? Why, then, are there gouges in the floor that every character acknowledges seeing?
xx Right away, we start seeing imagery related to war, particularly WWII (even Johnny's former landlord believed himself to be Charles de Gaulle). More specifically, this usually has to do with defense. Zampano's humor is described as "“that wry, desiccated kind soldiers whisper, all their jokes subsurface, their laughter amounting to little more than a tic in the corner of the mouth, told as they wait together in their outpost….”
Further on, irony is described as a "personal Maginot Line." The Ligne Maginot was a line of defenses erected in the 1930s by France on the border with Germany, constructed in the lead-up to WWII. Named after the French minister of war, André Maginot. It was ultimately entirely unsuccessful in keeping the Germans out of France, and as such is used to refer to a strategy that is hoped to be successful but ultimately fails utterly. There are many points in HoL that can be characterized as Maginot Lines as the characters engage in "battle."
xxiii Johnny says that he/the reader will try to see themselves as “some kind of indispensable, universe-appointed sentinel, as if just by looking you could actually keep it all at bay” carrying on this metaphor of watching/defense.
xxiii “You might try then, as I did, to find a sky so full of stars it will blind you again. Only no sky can blind you now.Even with all that iridescent magic up there, your eye will no longer linger on the light, it will no longer trace constellations. You’ll care only about the darkness…” The idea that what's important is not what is seen, but in the spaces between is important not only in the content of the rest of the text, but also perhaps in its later form.