the mare, by mary gaitskill

A troubled teenager experiences rare moments of liberation when she learns how to tame a wild horse.

Ginger is a middle-aged recovering addict and artist. She has a complicated family history, especially her relationship with her sister, and never feels like she's belonged. She's recently married Paul, a college professor. She'd like to create a family, has seriously considered adoption, but manages to talk the reluctant Paul into a foster type arrangement. They take on 11-year-old Velvet, a Dominican girl from inner city Crown Heights in Brooklyn, who stays with them on a rather sporadic basis.

Velvet has quite a few challenges of her own. Her oppressed mother, Silvia, is abusive, sometimes physically. The neighbourhood she lives in is tough and the street kids often cruel. She's also been a victim of racist taunts, with comments that she should be deported. Boys are only too ready to sexually exploit her.

Ginger and Paul mean to do the best they can for Velvet, but there are barriers of race, class and language. Silvia speaks no English, but her stiff language and tone of voice say it all. She's clearly hostile to white do-gooder Ginger, who she thinks has adopted Velvet as some sort of pet.

The only bright spot in Velvet's life is the horse stable across the road from Ginger and Paul's house. It is there that the no nonsense trainer, Pat, introduces her to the mare, called “Fugly Girl”. She received this epithet due to her violent, uncooperative nature. The horse has been abused and hence its lack of trust in people. But Velvet takes a shine to Fugly Girl, renaming her Fiery Girl. She will form a bond with the mare and achieve a degree of personal liberation from her troubles.

Mary Gaitskill has chosen difficult and uncomfortable subject matter. The Mare is emotionally complex like no other book. A needy, middle class white woman uses a coloured poor girl as a surrogate daughter. While Ginger means well, she continually bumps up against depressing realities and eventually realises her dreams for Velvet are just that, the fantasies of a privileged white woman. Ginger crosses a line when she lies to Silvia about Velvet riding horses.

Narrated for the most part by Ginger and Velvet, with occasional appearances from Paul, Silvia and Velvet's brother, Dante, The Mare is an engrossing, emotional train wreck of a novel. Mary Gaitskill doesn't shy away from exploring awkward relationships and embarrassing personal failures. It's this honesty, coupled with the book's intimate narrative voices, that makes it a unique experience.  

The Mare, by Mary Gaitskill. Serpent's Tail. $19.99

Review by Chris Saliba

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