The Mare: A Novel

Mary Gaitskill

ISBN 10: 0307743608 / ISBN 13: 9780307743602

Published by Random House USA Inc, 2016

About this Item

Following her National Book Award nominated Veronica, here is Mary Gaitskill s most poignant and powerful work yet the story of a Dominican girl, the Anglo woman who introduces her to riding, and the horse who changes everything for her. Velveteen Vargas is eleven years old, a Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist and shakily recovered alcoholic, and her academic husband, Paul, who wonder what it will mean to make a difference in such a contrived situation. Gaitskill illuminates their shifting relationship with Velvet over several years, as well as Velvet s encounter with the horses at the stable down the road especially with an abused, unruly mare called Fugly Girl. With strong supporting characters Velvet s abusive mother, an eccentric horse trainer, a charismatic older boy who awakens Velvet s nascent passion The Mare traces Velvet s journey between the vital, violent world of the inner city and the world of the small-town stable. In Gaitskill s hands, the timeless story of a girl and a horse is joined with a timely story of people from different races and classes trying to meet one another honestly. The Mare is raw, heart-stirring, and original.

Seller Inventory # 00084798409

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Mare: A Novel
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0307743608
• ISBN 13: 9780307743602
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

One of the Best Books of the Year
The New York Times • The Washington Post • NPR • San Francisco Chronicle • Vanity Fair • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • Kansas City Star

When Velveteen Vargas, an eleven-year-old Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn, comes to stay with a family in upstate New York, what begins as a two-week visit blossoms into something much more significant. Soon Velvet finds herself torn between her host family—Ginger, a failed artist and shakily recovered alcoholic; and Paul, a college professor—and her own deeply tormented mother. The one constant becomes Velvet’s newly discovered passion for horse riding—and especially for an abused, unruly mare named Fugly Girl. A stirring and deeply felt novel, The Mare is Mary Gaitskill’s most poignant and powerful work yet—a stunning exploration of a girl and her horse, and of the way we connect with people from all walks of life.

About the Author

Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To (nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award), and Don’t Cry, and the novels Veronica (nominated for a National Book Award) and Two Girls, Fat and Thin. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories.