Struggling With A Pulitzer Winner

I'm struggling. When Andrea Elliott's series, "An Imam in America" first ran in The New York Times, I started it, but for some reason did not finish it. So when it was awarded the Feature Writing Pulitzer last week, I figured I must have been out of my mind to drop the story like that. I went back and started reading it again. Well, I'm halfway through the first story and my interest is waning again. The story sure isn't badly written, but it feels like it has a nut graph that goes on for several pages (in essence telling me why the story is important, without somehow compelling me to keep reading). Maybe I'm spoiled by narrative, but I find myself impatient to get to some compelling scenes. By contrast, Chris Goffard's series on the lawyer, one of the other finalists grabbed me from the first graph. Anyone else out there have some feelings about Elliott's series? I may be missing something, or maybe just not giving it enough of a chance. There must be parts later that reward the reader for sticking with it?