Clifford Chase's Winkie was published in 2006 by Grove Press (it was published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton).
Clifford Chase is an American novelist. He is currently a Visiting Writer at Wesleyan University.
More information about Clifford Chase can be found here.
Here's a short review of Winkie:
A SHORT REVIEW OF CLIFFORD CHASE'S WINKIE
Clifford Chase's Winkie is a weird, satirical, philosophical, thought-provoking and touching fantasy book about a sentient teddy bear called Winkie. Winkie is a nice and innocent teddy bear, who just happens to be in a wrong place at a wrong time and is arrested. Winkie is accused of terrorism and other things, because people believe that Winkie is responsible for several nasty things.
I think it's interesting that the author has written a book a sentient teddy bear. An innocent teddy bear is an unforgettable protagonist, because there aren't many adult books about living childhood toys (some people may probably think that Winkie is just like A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, but Winkie is different from Winnie-the-Pooh).
The author explores different topics from childhood memories to fear of terrorism. He even explores gender issues, because it isn't clear if Winkie is a male or a female teddy bear. It's great that the author writes about difficult and socially challenging topics, because it makes the book interesting.
Winkie is a weird and unique combination of farce, parody, drama and social satire. It's a bit similar to Franz Kafka's stories, but it's totally different from them. It also reminds me of David Sedaris' satirical books. I think that readers who like Franz Kafka and/or David Sedaris, will like Winkie very much.
I can highly recommend this book. In my opinion Winkie is a wonderfully satirical book – it's one of the best and most interesting books I've read this year (it's actually amazing that I hadn't read it before, because I like this kind of weird books very much). This book is definitely "something different" and that's why it can be recommended to readers who are tired of conventional fantasy books. (I think I should mention that depending on your taste in books and your sense of humour, you'll either like this book or not.)