"Nothing gets held back in Soft Spots, Clint Van Winkle's account of his two years of duty as a Marine sergeant in Iraq...lacerating honesty, the narrative is dreamlike and surreal." --The Washington Post
"Van Winkle doesn’t attempt to analyze the wrongs or rights of the Iraq war, engage in political arguments, or blame politicians. He saves his energies for willing his fellow Marines to come home from Iraq alive and in one piece."--Washington City Paper
"[Van Winkle's] book describes his spiral from the inanity of war to the insanity of the world-weary...Happy trails? No. Trauma? Yes, this is how one veteran carries his war."--Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times, Marine Corps Times
"'Soft Spots' is a survival story, not just of combat but the mental warfare that follows, the oppressive nightmares that flesh is heir to, but mostly, it's a restoration of what's human, an unflinching stab at forgiveness, desperately in search of a meaning. Van Winkle, who spent much of his childhood in Charleston, now gives voice to the thousands of forgotten soldiers returning home from Iraq, or those whose souls are still stuck there. He gives us his poor haunted head, only mapped out and numbered, and the effect will make you weep." --postandcourier.com
