THE ARTIFICIAL ANATOMY OF PARKS by KAT GORDON

THE ARTIFICIAL ANATOMY OF PARKS

BY KAT GORDON

THE BLURB:-

At twenty-one, 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? Who was Uncle Jack and why would no-one talk about him? And why was everyone making excuses for her absent father?

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.

THE REALITY:-

I bought this during a day trip to one of my favourite places- Painshill Park- from their second-hand book bin. But I began to read it during a time when I couldn't devote myself to reading- I think, by default, I visited (and blogged about) six other tourist attractions. This book was an interesting read but in no way gripping, so I found it easy to put down, and slightly less easy to pick up upon the thread.  The Park family seemed to have a lot of relatives; some of whom were obscure and some not, so I had to kind of revisit sections to work out who was who and how who was related to whom, etc, etc.  I realise that this is my fault, not the author's!

This novel is what I would call a slow-burner; in other words, a catchy read with a gently unfolding trot towards the finale rather than a gallop. Having said that, I liked the character of Tallie a lot, and could certainly relate to her teenage angst.  I loved the descriptions of life within her boarding school (my next novel has a character who goes to boarding school, so this was all good research) and also empathised with the long hot summers she spent at her grandmother's house. They were reminiscent of my own childhood; marooned somewhere between town and country, and Tallie's closeness with the old lady (a woman with depth) was touching and evocative.  It's intriguing the way that secrets and lies exist within every family and can shape people's lives.

I did however work out, quite early on, that (spoiler alert!) Jack was Tallie's real father.  Tallie manages to get to the bottom of everything, but only after a long estrangement from the man she believes to be her father.  Incidentally, he did step up to the plate and do his job properly- it's just that, like a lot of that generation, he perhaps didn't know how to express his emotions effectively.  Oh, I could identify with Tallie's adolescent anger... As well as living alone at only age 16... And also living in the King's Cross area of London... Tallie lived there in 1997, exactly when I did (although I would have been a tad older).  Although the character is about ten years younger than me, I could certainly relate to the 1990s background and trends.  

I liked the way this novel explored our closest relationships with friends and family (I would- my work is on the same theme) and I'm so glad that Edward's heart attack forced Tallie to confront her aunts and her father, and Toby.  This novel explained its motive towards the end, and I'm pleased that everyone seemed to get the happy(ish) ending they deserved.   I suppose I would call this a soul searching book (Tallie was forced to take a long, hard look at herself and her nearest and dearest) and it did this with aplomb.  I loved the way the book was divided into sections inspired by human organisms (heart, skin, bones and blood) and some of the parts I devoured the most were the beginnings of the sections, where compact medical explanations took place.  I like to learn something new and I certainly did via the biological descriptions.  A good read and I will certainly look out for more work by this author.