Why I read novels in translation - but this one's a challenge

Gotta say even 60 or so pp in I'm still at sea w/ the final novel by the late Croation writer Dasa Drndic, EEG (2016), which so far seems to be about a man's recollections of the seaside town in Croatia where he spent much of his life and that now has become a quaint tourist mecca; his memories of home and childhood, including a long discussion w/ the woman then and still living in the basement apartment in his former dwelling, seem to be the main topic of this novel, with all of the expected allusions to Proust and his childhood recollections. The narrator is writer of some sort, though evidently one whose life has been thwarted in many ways, including significant difficulty find a teaching post, especially after he'd emigrated for a period of time to Canada, then returned looking for work. The subtext through all of these recollections and ruminations (on a variety of topics, including a long chapter on the associations between chess and suicide, w/ many cited instances of suicidal or otherwise disturbed chess masters) is the wars in the former Yugoslavia and continued tensions between Croats and Serbs. There's a lot of material in a short space, some presented directly and much be allusion; I'm hoping the novel will settle down and get some focus or direction, though I have my doubts, as this work seems very much in the contemporary tradition of free-form narratives that evince the author's knowledge and dexterity but don't provide us w/ the traditional hand-holds of literary fiction: plot and character. I also warn that most American readers, me included, will be baffled by the many references to contemporary events in Croatia and to the references to the history of Serbo-Croation warfare. So, sue me - part of the reason I read so many novels in translation is to learn about cultures around the world and places I will never visit. Whether I can continue to the end of this 400+-page novel or pause in exasperation, we'll see.