'The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep' by H. G. Parry

The ultimate book-lover's fantasy, featuring a young scholar with the power to bring literary characters into the world, for fans of The Magicians, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, and The Invisible Library.

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can't quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob -- a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancee, and an utterly normal life -- hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life's duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world... and for once, it isn't Charley's doing.

There's someone else who shares his powers. It's up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.

MY THOUGHTS:  

Wow, what a treat for fans of Victorian classic literature. This fun novel is set in New Zealand. 

Dr. Charley Sutherland is a 26-year-old English lecturer who finds it increasingly difficult to control his gift. All his life he's had an uncanny knack of getting so invested in novels that he causes fictional characters to materialise in the real world. Once released, some of them are determined to stay at large. Uriah Heep understandably refuses to return to the pages of David Copperfield, since he thinks every circumstance there is pitted against him in favour of the eponymous character; a privileged little sycophant in his 'umble opinion. 

When Uriah makes a run for it, Charley is forced to call on the one person who has grown up helping with emergencies of this nature, his older brother Robert. But poor Rob is now a busy lawyer with a mortgage and fiance, and he just wants to lead a normal life. 

It soon becomes clear to the brothers that other characters are quietly infiltrating the city of Wellington who are not of Charley's making. Another 'summoner' is bringing to life some of the classics' most infamous desperadoes to help take over the world. Charley and Rob must take drastic action to prevent this dastardly plot, but they feel so clueless and vulnerable compared to the anonymous mastermind who seems to have pilfered Charley's PhD thesis, 'Dickens' Criminal Underworld.' 

The author H.G. Parry calls her novel 'a love letter to literary analysis.' She has the likes of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, the White Witch and Heathcliff delivering their famous lines in perfect context for her story. 

I expected it to be a bit spoofy based on the blurb, but the novel is so cleverly plotted, with its own twists in the spirit of the classics, it's easy to suspend disbelief while reading. What I didn't expect was to find the presence of all these well known characters together in a completely different work to be as powerfully moving as it is.

The blanket statement that fictional characters aren't real irritates me. Surely when strong, living beings exist in our collective imaginations, they've earned the right to be considered real on a different level to us. They are the brainchildren of their specific authors, but adopted by hundreds and thousands of readers willing to turn the pages and immerse ourselves in their worlds. I've spent enough time captivated by the personalities of fictional folk to make them 'real' to me. Parry is working from a similar premise which I love and appreciate. 

She speaks through her own fictional detective girl, Millie Radcliffe-Dix. When Rob Sutherland tells Millie, 'No offence, but none of you are real. You're the accidental products of too much emotional investment in fiction,' she neatly responds, 'As opposed to what? The accidental products of a biological act?' Then later Charley declares, 'There's no law against a person being made of ideas, intuitions, interpretations and language.' Heck yeah, they are some of the best people I know.

According to this literary world of the Sutherland brothers, normal people may sometimes create accidental manifestations of fictional characters without even realising, when we are totally invested in their stories. If that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised to have materialised my fair share over the years then. 

There is also an interesting theme about sibling dynamics and the bond between the two brothers. It turns out the dark forces want Rob on his powerful brother's side all along, because they can see that like many older siblings, he has a way of diminishing Charley's self-concept unconsciously. From their evil objective perspective, Rob makes Charley vulnerable. Being a youngest sibling myself, that struck a chord with me too. Rob is great, but Charley is such an endearing blend of brilliance and humility. 

I highly recommended this for any bookworm, and  it's a must-read for anyone who like me, has read heaps of Victorian fiction. After slogging our way through those tomes, we owe ourselves this as our reward. And when you get stuck into it, you'll even be wowed by several appearances from Dickens himself, under the most unpredictable circumstances. Whether he's the 'real' Charles Dickens or a typical construct from the average 21st century reader is for us to decide.

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