THE MARE

Books can transport you to new places, but the best books can transform your point of view. In that sense, The Mare by Mary Gaitskill is a transformative book. This is not because the book uses some new literary device. Rather, The Mare is powerful because it forces you to step out of your comfort zone and to appreciate the points of view of characters who are seemingly so different from yourself.

The story begins with a young Dominican girl named Velveteen who lives in New York City. Velveteen has been matched up with a white family in rural New York through the Fresh Air Fund. The goal of that organization is to give inner city kids experiences away from home in nature. Ginger and Paul are the hosts, and they quickly take to Velveteen despite their very different backgrounds from hers Velveteen, in turn, is drawn to them and all the experiences that they have to offer, including horse back riding.

It turns out that Velveteen is quite a natural on a horse and becomes particularly attracted to a mare at a nearby stable nicknamed Fugly Girl. This mare suffered greatly at the hands of her previous owners, and to say that Fugly Girl is troubled is an understatement. Ginger, too, has a rocky past, and the book reveals that Velveteen's life has also been quite challenging. While the mare of the book seemingly refers to Fugly Girl, it soon becomes clear that all of these female characters have much in common. Each female is a mare in her own right.

We appreciate the similarities of these characters because the book is told in chapters of one to three pages-each told from the perspective of one of the characters, namely Ginger, Velveteen, Velveteen's mother, or Paul. Without these first person perspectives, it would be very easy to misunderstand the motivations of these characters. However, Gaitskill's tale puts us squarely in each person's shoes. This helps the reader to understand many of their fateful and seemingly self-destructive actions, and I am not sure I have ever read a more empathic book.

I will not give away the ending, but suffice it to say that I had a much deeper appreciation and understanding of all the characters in this book at the end. This was despite the fact that they were worlds away from me in location and experience.  We should be so lucky to have more experiences like reading The Mare-a book that truly makes this world seem a little smaller and that makes us all feel a little more connected.