The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

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This novel, written by Aimee Bender, is definitely a derivative of Like Water for Chocolate and a little of bit The Catcher in the Rye.  I realize these aren't the same types of books, but hear me out.
Rose discovers, at the age of nine, that she can taste the feelings of whoever made a meal.  Every person whose hands came in contact with the food, from the migrant workers who picked the oranges to her mother who made the fruit salad, is subject to Rose's skills.  She can taste that her mother is having an extramarital affair when she tastes the guilt and exuberance in a chicken dish; she knows that the French couple at her favorite restaurant truly love to cook because of the way the flavors marry in a recipe; she waits until her favorite lunchlady comes on duty to eat, because her sorrow is so real that it covers the blandness of cafeteria food.
The plot (if you can call some very loose connections to actions that) centers around Rose, her desperate mother, her almost-agoraphobic brother, Joseph, her distant father, and George, Joseph's best friend.  Rose gradually becomes accustomed to tasting people's feelings, although she doesn't socialize well; so much of her interactions with other people happen through her eating that it doesn't seem to occur to her to reach out.  George is the only character the reader will want to connect with because he is firmly situated in reality, in stark contrast to Joseph, who literally disappears into furniture (the description in the book left me very confused.  I had to read it several times to get what Bender was trying to say).  Although I generally enjoy works that seem almost ephemeral and weightless, this felt uneven.  Bender seems so intent on making this novel filmy: she doesn't use quotation marks, so the words seem to drift on the page; the characters' gifts are so abstract and almost distracting (the revelation about 4/5 into the book about her brother's disappearing act and her father's lack of interest in his own), it makes Rose seem a bit dull; and, moreover, nothing happens.  Rose's life is depressing and thoroughly introverted; why make her the main character if she can't seem to do anything?
Perhaps I wasn't in the right state of mind to really enjoy this book, but I was left wanting.