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The mare : a novel / Mary Gaitskill.

ISBN: 9780307379740
ISBN: 0307379744
ISBN: 9780307743602
Physical Description: 441 pages ; 24 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Pantheon Books, 2015.

Gaitskill, Mary, 1954- (author.).

Summary:

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. The story 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.--From book jacket.