The mare, by Mary Gaitskill

The premise of this novel sounds not only unpromising, but perhaps downright awful:  Frustrated and childless second wife of an older academic becomes overly-involved with the Hispanic/Black young girl from Brooklyn she sponsors as “Fresh Air Fund” kid.  While visiting her in the country, the under-privileged child falls in love with an abused and ugly mare and finds “happiness” through taming and riding her to triumph.  Ugh.  And, actually, the first part of the book made me very uncomfortable and I almost gave it up.  But it is really an unsentimental look at all the characters.  Ginger, an unsuccessful artist and recovering substance abuser, is an adjunct at the same college as her professor husband.  Paul, whose ex-wife and teenaged daughter live uncomfortably nearby, is not only unwilling to start a new family with Ginger, he embarks upon an affair with a younger colleague.  Velveteen Vargas, eleven years old, lives with her often hostile and abusive mother, Silvia, and favored younger brother, Dante, in a dangerous part of Brooklyn.  She is becoming attractive to older boys and struggles both in school and at home.  No one, not even the well-to-do white folks, are secure or happy.  Nor do they always make the right or sensible choices.  There are mixed motives on all sides and the book provides no easy answers.  441 pp.