Rising to Grace

By Naomi Neuwirth

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595465064
• ISBN13: 9780595465064
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Read it in one sitting...Wanted to know what would happen next

I haven't read a book in awhile that I could not put down. I found myself so interested in these characters' lives, that I had to keep reading to find out what would happen next. This is a great story about a woman's marriage falling apart and how she struggles with her misgivings and the fact that she still loves her husband despite his wrongdoings. It is a wonderful contemporary story about maintaining one's independence in a relationship, what you give up and how you find yourself again. The author is a psychotherapsist and really creates some textured characters.