Summary

Mary Gaitskill’s novel is related in the past tense from the first-person perspectives of several characters. The author indicates who narrates each section by name.

In “Velvet,” Velvet woke up from a dream she was having about her grandfather from the Dominican Republic. She and her younger brother, Dante, were leaving that day to go stay with white families through the Fresh Air Program. Her mother had signed them up for the program because the neighborhood into which they had moved was a bad neighborhood. She did not want Dante and Velvet at home all day alone while she worked.

Because her mother could not write, Velvet filled out the forms. She learned that family members were not allowed to go to the same family. Velvet hoped it would be fun. She had talked to the lady with whom she was going to...