Winkie by Clifford Chase

Kudos, Grove publicity department; the effective pre-publication marketing of the book dragged me in. Fun premise--a forgotten teddy bear comes to life and is mistaken for a Unabomber-type and taken into custody by the government. This could have, should have been the biting Bush-era political satire it aspired to be (one that seems strangely absent from the bookstores). Until you actually read it. Then you find it such a sprawling mess, filled with such nonsense and loose ends, it's amazing it got published at all. I'd rather eat lint.