The Ice King, a memoir

"Powerful and lyrical, passionate and graceful, The Ice King is magic."

-Diane Donovan, Bookwatch

"Wintner offers remarkably strong characters and developments . . . filled with broad stretches of gourmet reading. The narrator's sharp, laconic wit, the fine portraits of the skewed-edge in-laws, the fluid slaloming from past to present, and the occasional nugget of contemplative hindsight that rings like a solid brass bell are some of the author's considerable strengths. Wintner has an obvious and large talent for storytelling and characterization."                                                                                              -Rapport Magazine on The Ice King    

            "Fighting metaphors sweep through The Ice King on a compellingly angry tone. Yet there is pathos in the narrator's observation: 'People who lose their parents early, especially males from the hell-bent-for-leather school who lose a father in the crux of puberty, on the threshold of immortality, can imagine a lingering spirit more naturally. And maybe a parent checking out too soon does linger, until the kid gets old enough to know the odds.'

Wintner's strength as a novelist rests in his skill at drawing you into tight-knit family groups where the reader feels like a fly on the wall."                                      

-Peter Robinson, The Commuter Times, San Francisco

            "Wintner fleshes out the tale with humor, warmth and insight. We have one warning: Don't read The Ice King in a hushed library-we tried, until waves of laughter rolled up and exploded-very unpopular in a library. Beneath the hilarity, Wintner serves the message: 'Maybe success hinges on magic, and childhood is the best time to store it up.'"

-Sara Sanderson, The Indianapolis News