I think my reason for finding Lisey's Story kind of foreign was due to how much of a departure from what I'd gotten used to from sK in my brief time reading him it was. I look forward to a reread and I think it will be my first sK novel reread (I've read On Writing twice), because I liked so many aspects of it. It was just more bizarre than I'd expected. I found Insomnia and Rose Madder each extra bizarre, also, but again enjoyed them a lot and finished them, as well as Lisey's Story.
Lisey's is definitely his most 'literary' book--it's quite different in from from anything before or after (so far). I'm not complaining--his time jumps were so seamless and the language so rich and evocative that I went into writer envy, big time--but I think it might have been a shock to people who either don't read literary fiction or aren't good with writers working in a different 'voice'.