JM Coetzee: “The strangest book you are likely to read this year.”
Helen Garner: "
Grimmish meets a need I didn't even know I had. I lurched between bursts of wild laughter, shudders of horror, and gasps of awe at Winkler’s verbal command: the freshness and muscle of his verbs, the unstoppable flow of his images, the bizarre wit of the language of pugilism—and all the while, a moving subterranean glint of strange masculine tenderness."
Emmett Stinson, Overland: “
Grimmish is probably the most unusual Australian book I will read in 2021, and, without a doubt one of the best.”
overland.org.au/2021/06/the-exploded-non-fiction-novel-michael-winklers-grimmish/
Beejay Silcox: “All the makings of a cult classic. It’s grotesque and gorgeous, smart and searching.”
www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/13/the-25-best-australian-books-of-2021-helen-garner-alice-pung-tony-birch-and-more
Robbie Millen, The Times (London): "Playful, touching, eccentric, full of feeling…a blast against publishing by numbers"
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7ed0949e-eff3-11ed-b02d-cefaa3091195
Victor Ladis Shultz, Chicago Review of Books: "Witness the jagged recursion of the narration, the startling vocabulary, the exhaustive study of pain and pugilism and privation presented through outside quotation, interpolated poetry, and archived news copy…I describe it as a haymaker to the temple."
chireviewofbooks.com/2022/11/23/books-were-thankful-for/Times Literary Suplement: "Provides a model for how a writer might confront the difficult challenge of writing about, and celebrating, masculine energies and impulses"
Wall Street Journal: "Rambunctious"
Thomas Hauser: “Intriguing…Winkler crafts a compelling impressionistic portrait.”
tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/71290-literary-notes-grimmish-book-review-by-thomas-hauser
Ben Lindner, Beyond the Zero podcast: “Probably the Australian novel of the decade.”
Oliver Mol, SRB: "One of those rare narratives that delights and repulses and hums with such madness and integrity that we wish, at its conclusion, only to return to our desks and to forget all the writing rules we were taught at school"
sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/winkler-grimmish/
Daniel Green: "A literary provocation"
danielgreen.substack.com/p/issue-four
Bram Presser: “Blazing its own trail of experimental weirdo mindfuckery…the most daring book of (the year).”
baitforbookworms.blogspot.com/2021/12/2021-in-review-notes-from-antipodes.htmlReuben Mackey, Meanjin: "...recalls W.G. Sebalds's melding of fiction with his personal history, as well as the more exuberant postmodern playfulness of David Foster Wallace or Thomas Pynchon"
meanjin.com.au/review/something-for-the-pain/
Robbie Arnott: "Playful, visceral and elegant. Sat down to read it, lost an afternoon.”
Greg Gerke: “A novel that takes chances, that animates a hazily documented life and bleeds it into a strange music called fiction. It’s Stein, Gass, McCarthy, and Pynchon rolled into one exquisite cannoli.”
greg-gerke.medium.com/the-best-newer-books-ive-read-2021-390355130fc9Alex Cothren, ABR: “Michael Winkler’s Grimmish is the best literary clinch you’ll ever read.”
www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/962-april-2021-no-430/7608-alex-cothren-reviews-grimmish-by-michael-winklerBen Walter: “Grimmish will likely be the most interesting Australian book published this year.”
Jock Serong: “What a gem this is: funny, sad and fascinating – but more than anything else, the writing is superb. I hit the back cover at speed and nearly went clean through it.”
Steven Carroll, The Age: “Cleverly experimental, this is one out of the box.”
www.smh.com.au/culture/books/an-arrestingly-powerful-graphic-novel-and-seven-other-books-to-read-now-20210409-p57hwe.htmlAkin Akinwumi: “Great writing.”
‘One publisher called my book repellent’: the first self-published author up for the Miles Franklin
(Published: The Guardian)https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/21/one-publisher-called-my-book-repellent-the-first-self-published-author-up-for-the-miles-franklin
No-one would publish my novel, and now it's up for the Miles Franklin
(Published: SMH)www.smh.com.au/culture/books/no-one-would-publish-my-novel-and-now-it-s-up-for-the-miles-franklin-20220614-p5atj6.html 
