About this item
Velveteen Vargas is an eleven-year-old from Brooklyn who is granted a summer vacation in the country, courtesy of the nonprofit Fresh Air Fund. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, an alcoholic artist, and Paul, an academic who wonders what it will mean to ''make a difference'' in such a contrived situation. We see the couple's changing relationship with Velvet over the course of several years, as well as Velvet's powerful encounter with the horses at the stable down the road -- a weaving together of Velvet's vital inner-city community and the privileged country world of Ginger and Paul.
About the Author
Mary Gaitskill is the author of the novel Veronica, a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award and named one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of 2005. She is also the author of a short-story collection and the acclaimed novels Because They Wanted To and Two Girls, Fat and Thin. Her stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993) , and The O. Henry Prize Stories (1998) . Her short story "Secretary" was the basis for the film of the same name.
