The Mare

August 24, 2015
In this novel by National Book Award–finalist Gaitskill (Veronica), 11-year-old Dominican-American Velveteen “Velvet” Vargas from Crown Heights in Brooklyn is invited to spend a few weeks with a white couple in upstate New York as part of the Fresh Air Fund sponsorship program. The demure and self-possessed girl is skeptical of the situation at first, but as she continues to visit over the next three years, she develops a relationship with Ginger—an ex-addict and amateur artist—and Ginger’s professor husband, Paul, as well as with the horses at a nearby stable. True to form, as Velvet learns to trust her instinct and develops a talent for riding a feisty horse she renames Fiery Girl, her confidence soars. But problems arise when Velvet hits puberty and discovers boys: Velvet’s single mother, fierce and prone to violence, refuses to allow Velvet to ride and repeatedly calls her worthless, while Ginger goes off the rails dealing with her own insecurities. Gaitskill is renowned for her edgy writing, but the book—narrated by different characters—treads into stereotype. More nuanced portrayals might have made Velvet’s bumpy growth into an independent young woman more palatable.

Starred review from September 1, 2015
A young Dominican girl from the mean streets of Brooklyn forges a relationship with a white woman living in a bucolic upstate town and learns to love horses and respect herself.Eleven-year-old Velvet has a soft name, but there's nothing even remotely plush about her life in a rough part of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Abused (mostly, but not only, verbally) by her mother, a tough immigrant, Velvet has little to call her own (she keeps her treasured objects-a shell, a dried sea horse, a broken keychain doll-in an old cotton-ball box in the back of a closet) and few friends, almost no one she can trust. Velvet's mother clearly prefers her 6-year-old son, Dante, singing him to sleep at night with her back to Velvet in the family's shared bed. Instead of comfort and cuddles, Velvet gets the message that she's "no good"-not that it's really her fault; it's just that her blood is bad. While Velvet craves her mother's love and attention, Ginger, a 47-year-old sometime artist recovering from alcoholism and drug abuse, an abusive relationship, and the death of her troubled sister, finds herself yearning for a child. Now living a comfortable life in upstate New York with Paul, her college-professor husband, Ginger has decided to "test the waters" of adoption by hosting a Fresh Air Fund kid for a couple of weeks, a commitment that stretches far longer and deeper. That's how Velvet and Ginger meet, and it's also how Velvet meets a mistrustful and mistreated horse at the stable next door to Ginger's house, the horse the others call "Fugly Girl" and she renames "Fiery Girl," whom she will tame and train, and who will do the same for her. Alternating primarily between Velvet's and Ginger's perspectives, with occasional observations from other characters, National Book Award finalist Gaitskill (Veronica, 2005, etc.) takes a premise that could have been preachy, sentimental, or simplistic-juxtaposing urban and rural, rich and poor, young and old, brown and white-and makes it candid and emotionally complex, spare, real, and deeply affecting. Gaitskill explores the complexities of love (mares, meres...) to bring us a novel that gallops along like a bracing bareback ride on a powerful thoroughbred.

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September 1, 2015
In her first novel since Veronica (2005), Gaitskill tells the story of Dominican American teen Velveteen Velvet Vargas who, as part of the Fresh Air Fund, travels from her Brooklyn home to upstate New York. There she spends summers with her host family: Paul, an academic, and Ginger, an artist who longed for children of her own. As Velvet navigates the cultural and economic divide between her fiery, fearful mother and her educated hosts, Ginger makes a brilliant move by introducing Velvet to the world of horses, paying for riding lessons from the stable down the street. It's there that the aptly named teen finds her true gifts, forging an unbreakable bond with a horse that was once abused. And it is in these passages, as well as those detailing Ginger's artistic process, that Gaitskill's prose really connects. In soaring language that well captures being in the zone, whether it's painting or riding, Gaitskill brings home her theme of the importance of honoring one's gifts and the hard work of finding the best outlet for creative expression.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Anticipation is high for Gaitskill's first novel in 10 years, and a media blitz will ensure that this thoughtful novel reaches its audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 1, 2015

Velvet Vargas, the abused, underprivileged daughter of unstable Silvia, and Ginger, a fortysomething, upper-middle-class recovering alcoholic, are the heart of this multivoiced saga of damaged people scrambling to survive against enormous odds. When Ginger and husband Paul take in 11-year-old Velvet for a summer stint with the Fresh Air Fund in upstate New York, this initial visit segues into frequent visits over the years. Paul is skeptical about this social experiment; Ginger is obsessed with the girl's welfare every time she returns to Brooklyn. When they arrange for Velvet to take riding lessons at a nearby horse farm, Velvet's rare equine intuition ups the tension. Her jealous, hateful mother resists all efforts to nurture the very gifts that may save Velvet's soul, while Ginger oversteps one boundary after another to keep Velvet safe while healing the dark abyss of her own psyche. VERDICT Gaitskill spares no one in this brutally honest story of poverty, bigotry, the secret life of adolescents looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places, and parental and marital dysfunction. The major and minor voices narrating this brilliant tapestry are wondrously original, poignant, and, despite all, not without hope. [See Prepub Alert, 6/1/15.]--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2015

Though Gaitskill published the story collection Don't Cry in 2009, this is her first novel since Veronica was nominated for a National Book Award in 2005. Through the Fresh Air Fund, Velveteen Vargas leaves her Dominican American family in Brooklyn for several summers and travels to upstate New York, where she's hosted by idealistic academic Paul and Ginger, an unsuccessful, hard-drinking artist. The class and ethnic differences are inevitable, but the real revelation is Velvet's introduction to horses.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2015

Velvet Vargas, the abused, underprivileged daughter of unstable Silvia, and Ginger, a fortysomething, upper-middle-class recovering alcoholic, are the heart of this multivoiced saga of damaged people scrambling to survive against enormous odds. When Ginger and husband Paul take in 11-year-old Velvet for a summer stint with the Fresh Air Fund in upstate New York, this initial visit segues into frequent visits over the years. Paul is skeptical about this social experiment; Ginger is obsessed with the girl's welfare every time she returns to Brooklyn. When they arrange for Velvet to take riding lessons at a nearby horse farm, Velvet's rare equine intuition ups the tension. Her jealous, hateful mother resists all efforts to nurture the very gifts that may save Velvet's soul, while Ginger oversteps one boundary after another to keep Velvet safe while healing the dark abyss of her own psyche. VERDICT Gaitskill spares no one in this brutally honest story of poverty, bigotry, the secret life of adolescents looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places, and parental and marital dysfunction. The major and minor voices narrating this brilliant tapestry are wondrously original, poignant, and, despite all, not without hope. [See Prepub Alert, 6/1/15.]--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.