Customer Reviews

Ultimate Prizes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Now don't get me wrong: this is a fine book. But having read the entire series twice, I find Ultimate Prizes and Scandalous Risks, the third and fourth books in the six book series on the Church of England, not up to the same standards as the others. I consider Glittering Images, the first in the series, still the best. I've heard priests allude to this book from the pulpit. Glamorous Powers and Absolute Truths (the second and sixth books in the series) were my next favorites. Mystical Paths, the fifth book is also pretty strong.

I have read this series, and shared them with others, based initially on a recommendation from my priest. Susan Howatch introduces us to a lot of theological thinking under the guise of a novel, and there are a lot of Christian truths presented in this series. The first two and last two books in this series fulfill these purposes best. The middle two books in the series read more like, well, TYPICAL novels (and this is not why I've read the series).

I encourage everyone to read the entire series, but if you only have time for two to four books in the series, these are my personal ratings:

Glittering Images: 10

Glamorous Powers: 9

Absolute Truths: 9

Mystical Paths: 7

Ultimate Prizes: 6

Scandalous Risks: 4

In the third of the Starbridge series we get a closer look at Neville Ayesgarth, who was at loggerheads with Jon Darrow in the second book. Here it is Ayesgarth’s turn to be stripped apart and laid bare by Howatch’s expert scalpel! I have to admit that though I didn’t dislike this book, I didn’t like it as much as others in the series. It began promisingly enough, with Neville falling under the spell of the young flibbertigibbet Dido. Dido – who later becomes famous in the series as a loose cannon - resists his advances until… well, that would be giving things away. I felt though that the second part of the book gets bogged down in the dissection of Neville’s past. I found it not so interesting to read about his background as he tells it to his spiritual director; as such the characters who are so important to Neville - his mother, his father, Uncle Willoughby – never came alive for me and his recounting of them felt rather slow. However, it is still a great book and indispensable to the series - but it should be read in the right order, after its two predecessors. I have started an online discussion and reading group around Susan Howatch’s novels (...).

For all that the plots of her novels tend to cross the border to melodrama, Susan Howatch's gift for characterisation, and for the integration of superb spiritual insight (into the dialogue, if not the lives of the individuals depicted!) is impeccable. Neville Aysgarth, whose commitment and faith are unquestionable, is an odd but interesting blend of hard sense and the ability to create a personal world of his own, where his natural dedication is lost in the inability to have any real compassion or understanding. Others in his life, though he remains clearly unaware of this and, indeed, capable of believing he has a remarkable and favourable role, are "prizes" which he creates for his own benefit.

The bizarre love match of Neville and Dido will keep anyone with interests in psychology or odd relationships pondering its aspects. However, Susan does not disappoint those used to her excellent spiritual and theological insights. Some of her other "clergy," for all of their failings, remain great men. Neville, by contrast, is one who has genuinely good qualities that show his ever unrecognised potential to be in that category as well, but this can never be achieved. He can see the truth and wisdom in concepts such as Aidan and Jonathan present, or the ideals of his modernist heroes, yet can never get past his inability to accept his own weakness, any need for others beyond their being his prizes, nor his tendency towards deceit in the garb of theological integrity.

With vivid characters and an intriguing, if rather bizarre, plot, even those readers who do not wish to be inspired can be assured they'll never be bored.

Probably none of these are going to be quite as perfect for me as the first book in the series, "Glittering Images," because I am now familiar with this Anglican Church world and the characters who people it. Nevertheless, Neville Aysgarth, the protagonist in this novel, an archdeacon in the Church, tells a compelling story which involves himself always being after winning the big prizes in life, whether they be the perfect career, wife or children. This leads him to a breakdown and his spiritual battle back, this time with the counseling help of two other Anglican ministers, one of whom is Jon Darrow again. Aysgarth has some unlikable characteristics, along with likable ones, but some readers may be put off from him. He also picks a lulu of a second wife, Dido, who is supposed to be grating and abrasive. She succeeds well in this role. I've already started Book #4, "Scandalous Risks," so I am obviously hooked on the whole six book series.

Susan Howatch is my favorite author and I read her books over and over, each time gaining new insights. As a clergy person who delights in the parallels of religion/spirituality and psychology, I find her exhilarating and thought provoking. This is perhaps the third or fourth time I have read Ultimate Prizes and found it even better reading this time. A good story, psychological depth and theological insights. Bravo!!!

This is the first Susan Howatch book I've read. I really enjoyed it and the plot twists and plan to read more since some of the characters that appeared are also characters in some of her other books. An interesting study on how we can put up barriers/deceive ourselves and the trouble you can run into on a slippery slope.

I have to confess that out of all the narrators in the Starbridge series, Asygarth is the one who I take to the least, and Jon Darrow and Charles Ashworth being the ones who I support the most. I think that says more about my theological stance and my belief in Absolute Truths more than anything else, but it is also due to the fact that Asygarths unwillingness to face facts causes damage to himself and others, both emotionally and spiritually in his quest for the Ultimate Prizes. For this is the backbone of the novel. Archdeacon Asygarth, a liberal, and yet a comappsionate and admirable believer (In fact this is where I hold him in high esteem) in Christs grace and atonement despite whatever upset, goes for the 'Prizes' the wordly type things that he believes will make him happy, which will 'rescue' him from his troubled childhood. 'Ultimate Prizes' shows how this came to a head and how Jon Darrow helped him fully realise his vocation (not just a priestly one) and also his need for vulnerability before Christ

Neville Asgarth is the son of a draper who has overcome his lower class origins to rise up the corporate ladder of the Church of England. He has a deeply troubled psyche and is my least favorite character in Howatch's six book series.

Not without an innate ability as a clergyman, Neville also has the remarkable luck to marry a woman above his social station who is too good and too kind for him. He finds her tedious. And when she dies, worn out and under-appreciated after giving birth to Neville's five children, Neville feels liberated to pursue the society "It" girl, Dido Tallent, a glossy, fluffy flirt who sets her cap for the seemingly stable, mentally integrated, charming clergyman-on-the-rise because she fancies playing "Bishop's Wife" on the social scene. After a prolonged courtship, Neville finally wins his prize, and Dido becomes his wife.

The book deals with Neville's unresolved antipathy to his uncle, his conflicts of social class, his guilt over his treatment of his first wife and the guilt inherent in her death, his obsessive nature as evidenced by his single-minded pursuit of Dido, and his ability to compartmentalize aspects of his psyche into multiple personalities. This guy has issues.

SPOILER ALERT: Ultimately his exhaustive pursuit and subsequent winning of Dido come back to haunt him. The pursuit was everything; the having nothing. He quickly loses interest in her and, worse, it becomes apparent in subsequent books of the series that Dido morphs into a regular horror, one of those people with an uncanny intuition coupled with a brutal candor that leaves her victims positively skewered emotionally and psychologically. We've all known people like that, people whose verbal bludgeoning is qualified by the pious phrase,"I'm only speaking the truth." In addition, Dido is so highly strung that she is subject to episodes where she can't function at all, and she is disgusted by the sex act whereas Neville is very much a sexual being.

At any rate, divorce is out of the question as it would ruin Asgarth's hard-won career, so he is stuck with Dido and as book four, "Scandalous Risks," serves to point out, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy....

Howatch's Church of England series is a beautifully crafted, deeply pithy look at human nature with all its warts as well as a thorough examination of theological rationale. Truly, if you're at all bent in an intellectual direction, you will devour these books.

Is there room in this accelerated life we lead for the thoughtful and philosophical novel? The answer is yes if you need a vacation from a plot driven, page turning book. Which is not to say the plots of all of her books (out of print, I am sorry to report)are not interesting. They are unpredictable stories with characters that this writer at any rate would love to create.

It is not necessary to believe in God, or, in fact, anything to read these books, five in this series, with great enjoyment. For me they are a lot like Yoga, relaxing, the mind contemplates new things, I wonder, I think, I don't care that it doesn't rain (live in Arizona) that gas prices rise and never seem to fall or that the planet is warming, or cooling, can't remember which.
Her other books are real plot hotties, page-turning, character driven and a great read if you are interested in books that take place in the past.

The book came very quickly and was exactly described, in very good condition. Very happy with this transaction.