Partial Infinity

I've read about 250 pages of Infinite Jest so far and I'm wondering whether to me it is the equivalent of reading, in translation, a novel from an unknown part of the world, or whether American readers would share some of that response. I am enjoying it - make no mistake, where I can understand it, that is. It's not the convolutions of the plot that are the problem (though they are, and I think are meant to be), it's the allusions to things and ways of expressing them that I can't always follow. This is a deeply American book, it seems to me. Help!