The Mare Author:Mary Gaitskill 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 re... more »lationship 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.« less