Which book are you using?
The standard textbook on algorithms that is actually good is Cormen & Rivest. My experience is that it teaches recursion quite well.
Recursion is one of the harder parts of programming to grasp, and while it does require instinct, it can be learned. But it does need a good description, good examples, and good illustrations.
Also, 30 pages in general is a lot, 30 pages in a single programming language is confusing. Don't try to learn recursion in C or Java, before you understand recursion in general from a general book.
