S'Wonderful

I thought the book flowed well until the last 50 pages.  I thought that the author suspended a lot of deep thoughts until this point, and then I was bombarded with questions. Some of mine were similar to Glenn's.  I'm not sure, but this possibly had to do with the fact that I took Glenn's advice and skipped the sex scene at the end...

Sanctity of the Family (questions 4 and 5)
The rector committed fornication with Anna, but it didn't seem to me that he felt particularly bad about it (maybe I missed that part, maybe it was because he had lost faith). She didn't feel bad either until she learned that he had never known his wife. I could be a prude, but not only did I find this less believable in a medieval setting, I was upset that sex was so unsacred. To paraphrase, it became as her friend had mentioned earlier, like two travelers stopping for a good meal. Am I alone in my prudery? Am I unfair in my expectation for a husband to honor his wife at least a few months after her death? Or was that the point—that he had really sunk that low?

I felt like the author implied a few times that the creation of life was good, regardless of the means, and destruction of life is bad, regardless of the reason. While the plague certainly would lead a post-plaguer to believe this way, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. We just had a stake conference where the General authority spent an hour or so on the Proclamation. My favorite line is “Children are entitled” to be born to a husband and a wife that love each other. In light of the Church's position on chastity, family, abortion, adoption, etc. how important is the creation/destruction of life?

Suffering (question 6)
What does prolonged suffering do to us? Like Glenn mentioned, we're told we won't be tempted above that which we can bear. I don't know that the same applies to temporal suffering—I mean, the duration and the intensity is limited by our mortality. We can only suffer until we die. It seems, however, that some people are capable of suffering through really hard things, others through long periods of time. The rector was capable of suffering with his town until he suffered a personal loss.

Atonement
What about atonement? Joseph Fielding Smith has some interesting things to say about Atonement in Doctrines of Salvation regarding taking a life. I gathered that the Rector had a different albeit harsh take on that. What do you think are the penalties for taking a life? I'm not planning on killing anyone, but I think its an interesting doctrinal question.