Flat as cardboard

I have been struggling through a book that was suggested I read.  I wasn't going to read it until someone asked me about it and thought I should.  They warned me it was a slow starter but they were curious to see what I thought of it.  So, of course, I downloaded it and began to read. 
Twenty-two pages into the book and I definitely could feel the drag but there seemed to be an upswing into the story line.  I thought.  The upswing must have lasted one-two pages?  Maybe that long.  That is when it went back to it's brain fuzzing, monotonous, text blurring, gads still on page 85 and when does this get any better mode?!?
I am somewhere on page 212 of this 426 text when a character had the nerve to open a Sue Grafton novel.  Dang, I thought!  Even this flat, cardboard cut out of a character wants a diversion from whatever gray, bland world he has been created in.  That was when I knew I wanted to read a Sue Grafton novel.  I kept thinking how I would so much rather be reading a Sue Grafton novel.  I knew, of course, I've read all 21 of the series of Sue Grafton novels including her most recent that came out in August this year.  So unless I wanted to re-read, U is for Undertow, I wouldn't be connecting up with a great character in as realistic setting as Kinsey.
So I am plugging on.  I realize the reason I am not enjoying this book is due to the fact that it keeps telling me things.  It tells me this happened and this person is like this or that.  I know what you are thinking.  Don't books relay what happens and describe a person.  Ah!  yes...but how do the good books do that?  I don't enjoy books that tell me.  Text books tell me.  Boring.  Yes, boring.  Fiction should show me.  I have no connection with a character that doesn't act upon and show me his traits no matter how many times I am told. I have no connection with them.  If they don't actively do things that reinforce the behavior the author describes of them it stays flat on the page.  Quite honestly, the author has given me nothing to make me care or really believe in this character so why should I care what he is telling me?  They are talking to me but I'm getting nothing.  Who are they?  
Maybe I just haven't gotten past the slow start yet.  Wow, can't wait to finish this one up.  Then maybe this person won't ask what I thought of the book.  Careful now.  Ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies.
TT