Naomi Neuwirth

Rising to Grace Naomi Neuwirth

Riva Kaplan is a talented delivery room nurse who put her career on hold for her ambitious husband, David, as he built a lucrative dermatology practice. Two small children and thirteen years of marriage later, Riva and David find themselves distant, drifting, and constantly arguing. Riva's solution is to return to nursing part-time to regain an important part of her identity. David's solution is to build a mansion complete with lush landscaping, a pool, and tennis courts-and to have an affair. David is outraged by Riva's seeming inability to appreciate all that he's provided her and unnerved by her desire to work. He continues his descent into infidelity and increasingly shady financial dealings that threaten his practice. Amid the deception, tension, and turmoil, neither Riva nor David can escape the influence of their upbringing. Women in Riva's family have always been self-sufficient; her mother supported the family after Riva's father, a flamboyant womanizer, deserted them. David, infused with a feeling of unworthiness by his cruel and abusive father, is driven to both overachieve and control every situation. At odds but still in love with her husband, Riva must disentangle her priorities if she is ever to rise to grace.