Turning up the flame beneath an unsimmering plot : Brooklyn

A rather tepid book group discussion last night of Colm Toibin's "Brooklyn" - a rarity for us in that we had no significant disagreements, all (8) of us pretty much liking the book, especially Toibin's clear and elegant writing style and his thoughtfulness about the central character, Eilis Lacy. We also shared the same concerns: the book was almost willfully placid, avoiding time and again opportunities to take a devious turn of plot, every time there was a potential point of tension the issue was resolved with no great harm to Eilis. That makes the book easy to read and somewhat pleasant, but at time not much more than a glass of water. Which led to the 2nd and in my view more central critique - that Eilis was an unbearably passive heroine, letting actions happen to her rather than taking action on her own. Some discussion here: J believing Eilis was a strong, tough character (to me, not necessarily in contradiction to her being passive). Why did she never tell her mother about her secret marriage? What would have happened had the mean Mrs. Kelly never threatened Eilis? We pretty much agreed she didn't so much decide to go back to Brooklyn as she let the fates decide it for her - even then couldn't bring herself to have a civil and direct conversation with Jim, just cruelly leaving him an ambiguous note. What a child! We also couldn't help trying to imagine it as a different book: A Hardy novel (B said), in which Tony tells her he's found someone else and she returns to Brooklyn to find herself alone again, for example. Perhaps we felt a need to turn up the flame beneath this unsimmering plot. Some of the group felt the the benevolent Father Flood was a sinister character, though he did nothing wrong in the book (he's the trope of the meddling friar, as in many Shakespeare plays). Also a general sense that the setting seemed well before the 1950s, at least in Brooklyn, though we agreed there may have been throwback enclaves at that time. We loved some of the odd scenes that were not totally necessary for the book but gave it depth and character, e.g., the swim-suit try-ons and Miss Forliti's sexual advances.