The Artificial Anatomy of Parks

by Kat Gordon

A literary debut covering family secrets, intergenerational friendships, love, damage, and medicine

At 21, Tallulah Park lives alone in a grimy bedsit. There’s a sink in her bedroom and a strange damp smell that means she wakes up wheezing. Then she gets the call that her father has had a heart attack. Years before, she was being tossed around her difficult family; a world of sniping aunts, precocious cousins, emigrant pianists, and lots of gin, all presided over by an unconventional grandmother. But no one was answering Tallie’s questions: why did Aunt Vivienne loathe Tallie’s mother? Why is everyone making excuses for her absent father? Who was Uncle Jack and why would no one talk about him?

As Tallie grows up, she learns the hard way about damage and betrayal, that in the end, the worst betrayals are those we inflict on ourselves.

This is her story about the journey from love to loss and back again.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Book Club

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2015

About the author

Kat Gordon was born in London. She attended Camden School for Girls, Somerville College, Oxford, and received a Masters in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway. In between, Kat has been a gymnastics coach, a theatre usher, a piano accompanist, a nanny, a researcher and worked at Time Out. She has spent a lot of time travelling, primarily in Africa.

Kat lives in London with her boyfriend and their terrifying cat, Maggie. Her first novel, The Artificial Anatomy of Parks was published by Legend Press on 1st July 2015.

Reviews

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Artificial Anatomy of Parks is a beautifully written and moving debut from Kat Gordon – a deeply intense family drama with some brilliantly drawn authentic characters and actually a really emotional read.

A coming of age tale where family secrets are rife we see Tally growing up amongst an eclectic and fascinating group of family characters, where she is today very much informed by where she has come from.

The author has a really great way of telling the story in a gorgeously readable style and engages the reader from the very first page – this is a novel full of depth of character, emotional resonance and very insightful observations, as such it made for an intriguing read.

Kat Gordon is a writer to watch – building the layers of her tale in a truly alluring way, keeping you immersed into the story of Tallie and her life this is a remarkably accomplished debut and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

Highly Recommended.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tallulah Park is living a stagnant life when she finds out her father has had a heart attack. Estranged from her chaotic family, she is forced to confront the relationships and the issues that ran her off years ago. Stuck with the foggy memories of growing up, she is left trying to make sense of the secrets that existed beneath the understanding of her young mind. Why was her Aunt Vivienne hateful towards her mother? Why was her father stony is his emotions and distant? Who is Uncle Jack and why does the family seem to run off track when he is around? Why does there seem to be another world only the adults understand?
The first tragedy strikes and she is forced into a boarding school where her cousin also attends, but they are drifting apart. All the love and stability she knew flew away with one accident- and who is to blame? Things only seem to worsen over time, and those who seem ready to give comfort may just be injuring her more. Too much happens too fast, poisoning her youth.
At the head of the family is their terrifyingly fierce Grandmother, whose own love life has been a dark cloud. But she just may come to be her one true friend. In fact, Tallulah's grandmother is the best character of the novel with her keen understanding and biting personality.

"It's a filthy habit, you know," she says.
"I can still quit."
"The folly of youth."

This is a coming of age that seems charmed with all the cousins and aunts, but also cursed with the skeletons dancing in the closet. Everyone is damaged, it seems, by the love they chose. And when we meet Tallulah she is bitter and jaded- understanding in reverse everything she didn't know.
The grandmother really struck a chord with me, it's always the cranky ones that I grow to love.
Sadly moving family tale.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Artificial Anatomy of Parks is a beautifully written novel showing the effects of a terrible secret on one family and in particular on Tallulah. When we first meet Tallie as a young woman she is living in a damp, grimy room, working as a waitress and has just heard that her father has had a heart attack. We learn she has not seen her heart surgeon father for five years nor any of the rest of her family. She is persuaded to visit her father by her aunts and we start to discover more about this fractured family and the secrets it keeps. Tallie was sent to boarding school by her father following a family tragedy and has always felt very distant from him. He was always there for his patients but not for her.

Tallie isn't a character I initially warmed to, seeming cold and self-contained, rejecting friendship and her family. But as I learned more about her earlier life, I ended up just wanting to give her a hug! As a child she is aware that there is something to hide about her Uncle Jack, who she has hardly ever seen and who is mentioned only in whispers. She overhears snippets of conversations which don't give her the full picture of what is going on and she doesn't really understand. I'm sure many of us remember our curiosity being piqued by whispered or abruptly cut off adults' conversations when we were young!

For me the strength of this novel was in the character development. From her reserved father, to sensible Aunt Gillian, flighty Aunt Vivienne, her terrifying grandmother, Toby, Malkie and Tallie's various cousins, all are so well defined you feel that you really have an insight to them. Even those who seem to be unlikable at first are shown to have redeeming features. Tallie's relationship with her grandmother was one I particularly liked. Far from terrifiying, she becomes Tallie's ally when all is going wrong at school for her.

This is a stunning, quietly compelling novel, an exploration of the effects of secrets on a family. But it is also a novel about finally coming to know the truth, rediscovering love and how to love yourself. A brilliant debut - I will be watching out for more by Kat Gordon.

[Lisbeth Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book for its wonderful, moving writing and utterly believable characters, many of whom will stay with me long after the reading of their stories. I especially loved Tallulah's relationship with her grandmother. I love too that no-one is painted as all bad, they each have some redeeming qualities.

“People aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness all our lives.”

― Neal Shusterman, Unwind

A shoutout also to Simon Levy Associates for the beautiful cover.


Update, 7 July 2015:
--------------------
I wrote the above back in May. Six or so weeks after finishing the novel, not only do I think it's still a wonderful debut, Tallie and her family have stayed with me and I find myself wanting to reread it (despite having many hundreds of "must read immediately" books lined up).

I'm also still loving the beautiful cover and am even planning on getting the paperback so that I can (gasp! sacrilege! remove the cover for framing). Go on, take a look, wouldn't that look lovely on the wall?

[Clair Atkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Artificial Anatomy of Parks tells the story of Tallie and her dysfunctional family. Told in a series of flashbacks, we learn of Tallulah’s childhood and her family’s secrets, the death of her mother which lead to her being sent to boarding school and the disintegrating relationship with her father. In the present time, Tallie has just received a phone call telling her that her father is seriously ill after a heart attack and she has to make the decision about whether she wants to see him or not. During the course of waiting for him to wake up, Tallie learns the truths of her family.
The description of this book didn’t fill me with excitement – this was a book club choice and not the sort of thing I would normally pick up. But that is why book clubs are so great – making you read outside your comfort zone. The book was well written, the characters were believable and I liked Tallie as a narrator and character. One of the plot points I think was very easy to guess but it went deeper than I initially predicted. Well worth a read as a strong family drama (with a bit of medical jargon thrown in!)

[Sylvia · Rating 2 out of 5]

4.29. You're kidding me. Because I thought there was potential in the first half of the book I'm adding a star, making a grand total of two. The writing was awkward, the dialogue stilted, the secrets easily guessed very early on and the characters self destructive and unsympathetic. Then after pages and pages and years and years of dysfunction, the denouement rushes to a totally ridiculous treacly ending with all forgiven. Ugh! !How anyone likes this book is pretty much a mystery to me!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extract of the full review, previously published at If These Books Could Talk

Tallulah Park is stuck in a rut. A dead-end job in a cafe with an awful boss, no real social life, and cut off from her family, at only 21, she really can’t see anything in her future outside her grimy bedsit. So when she gets a call informing her that her father Edward has had a heart attack and is critically ill, it forces her back towards her estranged family, making her face up to the past and maybe get answers to the questions she’s had all along. Switching between Tallie’s past and present, ‘The Artificial Anatomy Of Parks‘ is an engrossing tale of one young woman facing her past and present demons. As she is forced to communicate with her father’s sisters, the mild busy-body Aunt Gillian, and the glamourous, acerbic Aunt Vivienne, she harks back to her past, realising that it’s time she got answers to the mysteries surround it. Why did her surgeon father seem to care more about his patients than he did his own family? What was behind the sibling’s fear of their father, and the seemingly harsh, unloving attitude of the mother? Where was their brother Jack and why did he disappear so suddenly? All of these questions finally find answers through the eyes of both the younger and older Tallie, with our protagonist’s discovery of the harshness of her families life giving her a completely new perspective.

Kat Gordon has created in Tallie Park a strong-willed, often obnoxious, child who’s always curious and questioning. As a young adult, she’s determined, but obviously quite beaten down by past events, and Gordon conveys this wonderfully. Whether it’s reflecting on her father’s emotional detachment by confronting her own as she watches him in his hospital bed, or realising that she has talents that would be better spent away from the greasy cafe, Tallie’s inner monologues are always insightful, adding depth each time. When we see the story unfold through the eyes of young Tallie, we start with child-like curiosity and continue on towards teen anger and resentment. Make no mistake, Tallie’s life is no picnic, and there are very harsh moments here, but Gordon makes sure to intersperse the nasty with wonderful imagery and conversations as young Tallie’s relationship with her Grandmother blossoms into one of mutual love and understanding.

Gordon’s use of motifs is subtle, but very effective (how Edward finishes conversations with his daughter being the most hard-hitting) never resorting to family saga clichés. Great detail is given to the surroundings, never feeling superfluous, and the atmosphere is perfectly balanced, with some family scenes brimming with tension, making the books very hard to put down.

‘The Artificial Anatomy Of Parks‘ is one of those novels that you finish and think ‘Was that really her first book?’ as it’s structure is tight and the prose so outstanding. A novel that’s full of harsh reality and compassion in equal measure, with characters that instantly come to life, this could easily be one of my Top Ten for 2015.

[For Books' Sake · Rating 5 out of 5]

With masterful, understated prose, first time novelist Kat Gordon gradually unpins the inner workings of the mysterious Park family.

The Artificial Anatomy of Parks is Kat Gordon‘s debut novel, and is without anything remotely resembling a beginner’s mistake (if there is such a thing); her English degree from Oxford, and Creative Writing MA from Royal Holloway oblige here.

One might be forgiven for thinking that this is a book about green parks, because the title omits the word “the”, which might have advised readers that it is about a family with the surname Park. The equivocation is significant : parks in novels are traditionally charged with symbolism; for instance of the relationship between wild, unchecked growth, and the sharp scissors of social refinement cutting everything into neat shapes. Transposed to a psychological plane, this seems to be the main problem of the fictitious Park family. Part coming-of-age-story and part psychological drama, this novel delves into the heart of family relations and family tragedies, and denounces the curious secrecy that often surrounds them. It takes place in London in the 1990’s, and 2000’s, and the dialogues are so life-like, it often uncannily doesn’t seem like fiction at all.

Still with an eye on the title, the word “Anatomy” gives an inkling that the narrator has her family on the dissecting table, removing layer after layer of appearances in a reluctant quest to see what lies beneath. Tallulah “Tallie” Park is a young woman who would have liked to become a nurse, but these career dreams were aborted when, as a teenager, the surgeon’s daughter broke away from boarding school and fell out of touch with her family. Now living and working in London under less-than-glamorous circumstances, she is largely estranged from her relations. When she is suddenly called to her father’s sickbed in hospital, she far from ready to see him.

An unplanned family reunion around surgeon Edward Park‘s sickbed becomes the site of Tallie’s gradual recollection...

Want to read more? Finish this review and find out more about women writers at our website: http://forbookssake.net/2015/07/13/th...

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Artificial Anatomy of Parks is the story of Tallulah 'Tallie' Park. After Tallie receives a phone call to say her father has suffered a heart attack it makes Tallie even more determined to resolve unanswered questions from her past.

The majority of the story is told in the form of Tallie growing up where we discover as with many families there are dark hidden secrets within it. I found the story to flow at a steady pace and even though I had guessed correctly what part of the secret was, I wasn't expecting the rest of it. This didn't lessen my enjoyment what so ever of the book though as I really enjoyed the journey that the author takes us on.

I really liked Tallie's character, I think she is very much misunderstood by family, teachers and friends alike, yet with her vulnerability there is also a great strength there. Uncle jack fascinated me and like Tallie was very intrigued to find out more about him. There are quite a lot of characters who I wasn't over keen on to start with, mainly in the form of Tallie's grandmother and aunties, even her father but as the story progresses they did start to grow on me.

This book is so well written and I easily lost myself in the story, I find it hard to believe that this is the authors debut novel and look forward to reading more by her in the future.

Many thanks to Legend Press and Netgalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Bookread2day · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Artificial Anatomy Of Parks by Kat Gordon is a well written family drama novel heart breaking at times.
Tallulah Park live alone her flat is in a converted Victorian house, but she has a bedroom with a stink. She hasn't seen her father in some years when she gets a phone call from Marylebone Heart hospital informing Tallulah that her young fifty-four year-old father has had a heart attack. Tallulah had problems with her uncle Jack when she was young with the family home feeling uneasy every time her uncle Jack was around. Her aunt Gillian is married to Paul who is her oldest husband yet. As Tallulah returned to work her boss thinks that her father's heart attack was just an excuse to have some time off.
Stress and family drama is all here waiting for you to explore the themes of how we love and exploration of forgiveness. Full praise to Kat Gordon for this wonderful novel. I hope we all will see more novels by Kat Gordon

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Tallulah's story - before and after her mother died. It seems to her that the whole family (apart from her) know what the secret is and no one wants to tell her and despite eavesdropping whenever she can, is none the wiser. She has an abrasive character and at first is not very likeable, but then I found myself admiring how gutsy she was and how brutally honest. I loved how the book was written despite the secrets being a bit obvious! Some great descriptions of coping after a death, how awkward some relatives can be and life in a boarding school with the various cliques. All in all a pretty good first book - hopefully the first of many. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

[Paula Sealey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly moving family saga with many twists and turns, I was captivated by this book and it's beautifully drafted characters from the start. The writing is almost conversational in style making it very easy to get involved in the story. Tallulah, the main character, is wonderful, and the look back into her childhood and her relationships with various family members exposes a long held secret that builds nicely throughout the book.

A super debut novel, I will certainly be looking out for future books from Kat Gordon.

*Thank you to the publishers for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally I enjoyed this book. I liked the main character & the way her history and present were interwoven to explain the story. However, it was also sometimes a little hard to understand the jumping between the two as there was often no obvious break from what was happening currently/what had happened before. A few things seemed a bit out of place but generally it worked well as a story. I liked that the ending gave hope for each of the characters even if there was not a guaranteed happy ending.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, The Artificial Anatomy of Parks, by Kat Godon is such a touching work. This debut novel is filled with characters that ar so well-written they feel like they are here with me. This family drama is filled with a lovely writing style which keeps the reader involved from the beginning.

I love it when an author does such a good job that I do not want to put a work down. This was that type of book. I look forward to reading this book again as well as any future works by Kat Gordon.

[Alison Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks ruby for lending me it!

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely Read

Much to my surprise this book was a lovely read. I liked it very much . Love and Redemption made it fascinating.

[Janka H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sins of the fathers?

Tallie is on the run from her family and the pain she have had experienced. The Parks are odd family of different personalities - yet every one of them is damaged (or better said hurt) in their own way. And they can not communicate well with the others - so they are just living with the shared secrets. But 10-year-old Tallulah is very perceptive.
So when strange Uncle Jack enters the scene, Tallie knows something is going on - with her beautiful, loving mother suddenly gets ill and her father is going colder and colder. And then her mother, the center of her universe, dies. And Tallie is sent off to the boarding school - hurt, alone and with scary suspicions clouding her heart. And The Park cycle continues with the hurt and the inability to share it.
So Tallie runs and runs from life - until her father gets seriously sick. And now maybe it’s time to find out about the secrets.

This is deep, touching story, packed with hurtingly beautiful emotions and tons of authenticity. It reveals its depths slowly, but the long read is very much worth it. And maybe it is so relatable because the Parks, this eccentric, odd pack, are really the every family with the closet full of skeletons and human, messy, embarrassing way of dealing with them. And while this is a deep book, it is also a very catchy read - not always the case, but here I went willing with the long ride and the truths which has been hitting close to home from time to time. Because I, too, can not always know how to communicate my true feelings and how to ask the hard questions while maintaining the open heart.

Recommended read.

[Maniuś · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artificial anatomy of Parks is a great family story. I got really into the novel since first pages, and it was a page-turner. The plot is very intricate and enjoyable, but sometimes confusing. Main character finds out that her family is not so perfect as she thought. The reality in this story turns out to be fake. Kat Gordon shows us the family secret brick by brick, and the book is intresting to the end. The memories from childhood that author uses in her story are very involving and I really liked them. The book is nice ,pleasant, I would reccomend it for everybody looking for some enigmatic plot.

[CATHERINE · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because of the cover not knowing anything about it. Deep family secrets, tragedy etc. it didn't feel particularly "new" in it's approach and plot. However the writing style evaluated the story and I would read another book from this author.

[David Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice, movigly written novel about growing up and finding knowledge and forgiveness. It is also about the part of your life when you learn that your parents are fully human with complex emotions apart from you. This was a great book to win from a Goodreads giveaway. You should read it!

[Helen J Altshul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this novel extremely dull, which is why it took me so long to read it. The plot was predictable and unimaginative. Glad to have finally finished it so I can move on to something else.

[Acordul Fin]

DNF at 17%.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was excellent, a solid 4.5 character study of complicated and flawed people who generally demonstrate growth. the resolution was a little off, but for a first novel this hit all the spots. beautiful.

[Delia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Artificial Anatomy of Parks is the story of a family secret. Tallulah Park gets a phone call from the hospital. Her father has had a heart attack and is now unconscious. She decides to go and see him.
It is clear early on that Tallulah did not really get along with her father, and so the story begins, alternating between events from Tallulah’s childhood and the present, where she is working as a waitress, living in an old building and trying to avoid her relatives. Her father’s ill health is the reason she decides to once again come back and see her family, even though she’s been away from them for years. Why she’s stayed away for so long is explained in the end as is almost everything else.

This book was a mixed bag for me. I liked the skipping back and forth in time – the narrator, Tallulah, has an engaging voice and the breaks in her story come at the most interesting points, something I found equally intriguing and annoying. It’s like someone is about to tell you a secret but suddenly the phone rings and the moment is lost. There are plenty of moments like that throughout the story which only made me impatient to get to the end.
There are family squabbles, a strained relationship between Tallulah’s mother and her father’s sisters, and then there’s Jack, her father’s brother, whose return after a long absence causes turmoil within the family and brings about a tragic incident.

Tallulah seems apathetic for most of the time, and I did not find her a particularly likeable character. After going away to live by herself she seems almost lifeless and I couldn’t help comparing her with her father, a seemingly cold and uninteresting man who seemed to do anything in his power to avoid spending time with his daughter. Later on in the story I felt pity for her, for the tragedies she had to go through, and a tiny bit of admiration for the way she had managed to survive, but overall I wished I liked her more. Uncle Jack was the real mystery of the book, and the part he had to play in Tallulah’s life. It seems that even if he tried to do good, all he was able to do was to bring about more heartache.

From dealing with abuse to anatomical references concerning the workings of the heart (my favorite part), this novel manages to be somehow heart-warming and almost indifferent at the same time, an odd combination which works startlingly well overall.

There is a mystery to be revealed at the end but the part that is finally revealed is easy to see coming because of all the events leading up to it. The other part, the most interesting part concerning a death, is left unanswered and I’m still thinking about it because I felt there was no closure. On one hand I agree that not everything needs to be resolved in a novel but on the other hand I really wish I had the answer to this one. But then, thinking back to the name of the novel, this seems like a fitting way to end the story.

I got this book from the publisher, Legend Press, in exchange for an honest review.

[Yi Le · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a coming of age novel about a young girl, Tallulah Park, who lives in a decrepit place. She is called to the hospital because her father just had a heart attack. However, she doesn't get along with him as they were never particularly close. In fact, she has a strained relationship with her entire family.

There is so much drama and secrets surrounding them. An aunt who hates her mother, an uncle they never would talk about. It was sad, moving and so emotional. There were many twists and turns and it was beautifully written. This is really the tale of Tallulah Park, the events that led to the conflict with her family and how she develops mentally and emotionally as the story continues. The book was intriguing and dealt with interesting matters.

One problem I had with it is that I didn't like the main character much. I couldn't connect with her at all.

I recommend this book for those who like a good family drama, as there are many secrets and mysteries within the main character's family.

[Beverley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book- so exciting to have uncovered a potentially new favourite author- captivating from the word go!
Each character was beautifully drawn and utterly believable, creating an incredibly moving, web of a tale that had me hooked throughout. You know you have found and experienced something special when the story lingers long after the last page. Very well done Ms Gordon - look forward to more of the same and big thank you to NetGalley for treating me to this advance copy.

[Johanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good bad book or a bad good book? couldn't put it down (oh, to find this in a airport newsstand!) or wishing for a very full red pen. the plot seems to be trying out for oprah's book club, most of he adult characters have less depth than some paper dolls i have known, the main character Tallulah is abrasive, genuine, and very winning, most of the kids, in fact, and one or two adults, are so well written that i don't really understand what happened with the rest.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story set around a troubled young woman and her dysfunctional family. While the writing wasn't bad, I really don't care for novels such as this. I feel like everyone is always complaining, no one listens, and that in the end all of their problems and big secrets aren't really that big of a deal.

[Jennifer Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Both heart breaking and heart warming, this story of Tallie Parks is a an acutely observed account of a turbulent family life. The prose is beautifully constructed, but delivered in a manner so unassuming and with characters so well articulated, that the story slips past so quickly you're left wanting more from this fresh British voice. A marvellous debut. Cannot rave enough.

[Tiffany Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads first reads giveaway and really enjoyed the book. The switches from present to flashbacks kept the story interested because when it switched you were often left wanting more. I enjoy books written this way.

This story told from Tallulah's perspective is a great story of a difficult family. I constantly wanted more when reading this book.