Winkie - Hardcover

Chase, Clifford

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340924551 ISBN 13: 9780340924556

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006

Synopsis

After suffering decades of neglect from the children who once loved him, Winkie hurls himself off the shelf, jumps out the window, and takes to the forest. But just as he is discovering the joys and wonders of mobility, self-determination, even true love, this small brown creature of indeterminate gender gets trapped in the jaws of a society gone rabid with fear and paranoia. Having come upon the cabin of the mad professor who stole his beloved, Winkie is suddenly surrounded by the FBI, who instantly conclude that he is the evil mastermind behind dozens of terrorist attacks that have been traced to the forest. Terrified and confused, Winkie is brought to trial, where the prosecution attempts to seal the little bear's fate by calling upon witnesses from the trials of Galileo, Socrates, John Scopes, and Oscar Wilde. Emotionally gripping, intellectually compelling, Winkie introduces the most memorable protagonist since the Velveteen Rabbit, and - with the help of a lesbian Moslem cleaning woman, a stuttering attorney, and a Lacan-spewing bear cub - brilliantly exposes the cruel absurdities of our age and explores what it means to be human in an increasingly barbaric world.

About this title

Product Description

Winkie

Review

'Winkie is a luminous achievement - a magical, eccentric novel about the subversive imagination, and about the power of anarchic play. I recommend this book with the utmost enthusiasm and joy' (Wayne Koestenbaum)

The emotional and moral torments of a teddy bear drive this surprisingly effective allegory of our terror-stricken times. This first novel . . . opens as if it were a parody of TV crime dramas, with a teddy bear named Winkie arrested by federal agents under charges of performing acts of Unabomber-like domestic terrorism. But this wacky setup is girded by sober, elegant writing that neatly balances both political and domestic themes . . . The courtroom scenes are wildly, brilliantly comic--Winkie is charged with a list of felonies (including "Corrupting the youth of Athens") . . . But Chase isn't just being cute here. Tinkering with the idea that a teddy bear is a repository for all our insecurities, he throws even our largest concerns at him: love, God, death, patriotism, racism, sexual identity and what it means to be human (or in Winkie's case, human-like) . . . Chase makes this out-of-left-field story work brilliantly; a funny and sweet yet seriously topical novel.' (Kirkus - Starred Review)

'The sections devoted to Winkie's trial is a minor masterpiece of ridiculousness, in which the prosecution's move to end the trial after it has presented its side sounds uncomfortably close to what we read in the newspapers. This book is way too odd to be sentimental, and its political sensibility shuttles easily between the cartoonish and the shrewd. Chase puts himself in the same league as David Sedaris with this unclassifiable debut' (Publishers Weekly)

'The sections devoted to Winkie's trial is a minor masterpiece of ridiculousness, in which the prosecution's move to end the trial after it has presented its side sounds uncomfortably close to what we read in the newspapers. This book is way too odd to be sentimental, and its political sensibility shuttles easily between the cartoonish and the shrewd. Chase puts himself in the same league as David Sedaris with this unclassifiable debut' (Publishers Weekly - Starred review)

'Chase makes this out-of-left-field story work brilliantly; a funny and sweet yet seriously topical novel.' (Kirkus Starred review)

'Winkie is a remarkable character, made vibrant and utterly convincing flesh (plush?) under Chase's masterful hand. This is a hauntingly beautiful, lovely and strange, funny and sly, surreptitiously moving book.' (David Rakoff, author of Don't Get Too Comfortable )

Edition details

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0340924551
• ISBN 13: 9780340924556
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256