How’s this for a heartwarming set-up? Forty-something recovering alcoholic and aspiring artist Ginger copes with the disappointment of being unable to have children of her own by signing up to an organisation that sends underprivileged inner-city kids to the homes of middle-class couples in the countryside. When she is introduced to 11-year-old Dominican girl Velvet, the two bond over horses, with Ginger offering the girl a freedom denied to her by her domineering mother.
It sounds perfect for book clubs, soon to be a life-affirming movie, and of little literary interest. But The Mare has much more merit than the synopsis suggests. It’s the first novel in ten years from Mary Gaitskill, a novelist and short-story writer renowned for her icy chill: the three collections of stories and two novels she has previously published mainly explore the dark side of life (sadism, disease, the seven deadly sins) and she’s still best known for the story that inspired the S&M art house hit Secretary.
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