This was an impulse book buy. Yes, I bought a book. Now, don’t you all (my WHOLE audience, I mean) gasp at once at my impetuosity in plunking down money for a rectangle of words I actually get to keep, instead of borrow temporarily from the library — I had a coupon, a 30-percent-off coupon, so that explains it. That and the fact that this book seemed to be right up my ally: a satire, about a teddy bear subjected to the American legal system after being accused of terrorist bombings (a la “The Unibomber”). Yup, sounds exactly like me, meaning turning the world on its head, having a few good laughs and yet taking away a different perception of the world as we know it.
However (insert the “audience,” the quotes meaning there’s not much of one, groaning), Winkie didn’t quite do it. In fact, the plight of our Teddy Bear protagonist was pervasively sad, almost fatalistic in its belief in inevitable tragedy, the inevitable loss of innocence and the perversion of what is good.
Winkie, sparked to life after two generations of children grew up and left him on a shelf, is an unwitting patsy, and the courtroom drama, while amusing, doesn’t even come close to the poignant (and yes, still funny, in my opinion) trial in The Stranger. Instead, it’s cartoonish to the point of being un-funny, more Bullwinkle than The Simpsons, more obvious anvils on the head than witty double entendres.
It’s a great effort by an author that had a quirky idea and actually followed it through, like so many of us literary types don’t. Perhaps he needed a bit longer to refine it, or perhaps he meant it to be somber instead of satiric. In the end, the book reminds me of Absurdistan, another novel that proves comedy, while under appreciated, is actually one of the most difficult genres to tackle successfully. Perhaps that’s why I always strive to make people laugh in everyday life, because I think humor can sometimes convey more than dowdy drama.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars – Book club vacation reading
