"Ultimate Prizes" by Susan Howatch

This is the 3rd book in the "Church of England" series.  Another real look at real problems real people face.  Honestly, Howatch's characters are so believable, I forget it's fiction I'm reading.  I personally love the theme of this book--only true repentance leads to forgiveness and freedom, and getting there involves calling sin sin, not just "ringing down the curtain" on it!!

Again, there are many memorable characters in the book, including:

Neville Aysgarth

• "Crisis?" I said.  "What crisis?  The crisis is over--ring down the curtain!  I've no doubt at all that we'll eventually succeed in living happily ever after!"

Dido Tallent

• " . . . and in fact I wouldn't mind not marrying at all, but of course a woman has to be married if she wants to be a success in life, and I burn to be a success.  So what am I to do?  I'm twenty-seven years old.  I've got to take action soon or I'll wind up a spinster, and one can't be a successful spinster, it's a contradiction in terms.  I did think of being a successful nun, but they keep such peculiar hours, and I'm sure I'd hate being deprived of my silk underwear--"

Jonathan Darrow

• "Very commendable," said Darrow, "but the trouble with those sort of curtains--the ones that hide the past--is that they tend to develop such an unfortunate habit of going up at the wrong moments."

Aidan Lucas

• "No, it's much too painful, isn't it?  It's a torment.  It's a nightmare.  But Neville, in the end you've got to screw up all your courage and face this pain.  The road to repentance doesn't lie, you see, in ringing down the curtain on the sin you can't bear to face."