Reviews:

“"…satirical, fantastical, and philosophical….. We see the world…most rivetingly…. readers will find that they can’t take their eyes away. They’ll also sometimes wonder what’s real and what’s not—and exactly what kind of magic might be at work. A celebration of the dysfunctional that will keep readers turning pages."
--Kirkus Reviews
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“ … extraordinary… compelling…how greatness and a perversely grand crassness vie for dominance … [D]ense and minute detail of flora and fauna, coating virtually every action undertaken, by every character, line after line.…much more than the standard picture painting of a diligent novelist’s imagination. It weaves a loom -- veiled to characters, naked to the reader -- of finespun hard-steel cable that conducts unwitting subjects to their mysterious and ineluctable ends, a hermetic prison of fate.
… clinical precision and vertiginous pace combine into one of the most astounding passages of English prose you’ll ever read.… [A] behind-the-lines pattern of interlocking incidents and images with which she has mined the length of the story that both tightens the tale’s unities and throws into question -- despite its profuse, microscopic hyper-naturalism -- the reality of the tale itself…This is the quality that takes “Wish for Amnesia” from the merely brilliant to the root-and-branch reinventive…This well-veiled, richly tapestried infrastructure of “puzzles” … finds few literary precedents…(maybe…Joyce or the postwar nouveau roman French fictionalists)."
--Home Planet News
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"an adventure in language, as well as an entertaining “Siddhartha-type” read…[with] both pleasant and disturbing surprises…likely to touch a responsive chord…. The book is a kaleidoscope of  references to obscure and eclectic subjects…[that are] delightful to experience…. I, for one, thank Joseph Quintela for publishing “Wish For Amnesia,” and I believe many other readers will, too.”
—Mike Foldes, Ragazine
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"The novel Wish for Amnesia is fast-paced, surprising, heart-wrenching and beautiful. It touches the very core of the reader’s soul, [and] will live up to its expectations of…unusual and amazing tidings…[that] weave intrigues for readers…. Barbara Rosenthal’s achievement as author…is exemplary. [She] elevates storytelling to a high note.…[in which] historical moments…beautifully intertwine in a [fictional] storyline [that] will haunt readers for a long time. The tale stands out in its imagery and its tight and gripping plot…. The incredible flow of the novel is not compromised even once! She builds an engrossing journey for each of the six characters and judiciously sees them through a befitting conclusion. Her photographs that accompany each chapter are a boost…. Wish for Amnesia…merits five stars and a read from every book lover around the world.”
—Kleio Bhagwati, Wicked Venom / We Love Quality Books
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“…A very clever, powerful and complex book that demands full attention and careful consideration. This is not a book about good and bad, but a book about the contest between priorities of the mind, priorities of the body and priorities of the soul."
—Angharad Lodwick, Tinted Edges 
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“Rosenthal enjoys toying with the narrative form. A welter of minute real-world detail confines characters and reader inside a moving prison of fate. [Her] characters come of age, start a family, harbor messianic visions, travel, [drive], attend a party, keep journals…[during] points of high physical drama…. The book is making an impact where it counts….”
—Lehman Weichselbaum, Jewish Voice
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"Pynchonesque, sci-fi gospel parable. / An extraordinary cast of characters who shuttle between divinity and depravity, motivated by a blinding vision of perfection. Thought-provoking, beautifully written and fully engaging. Brava!"
—Jeffrey Cyphers Wright, Ragazine / Goodreads
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"...as challenging as it is rewarding.... Rarely have I felt a sense of place as vividly as while reading this story. The same is true of the characters, each of whom is a complex universe on any number of levels.. Truly, this book is a psychoanalyst's dream. The period of the novel--1960s to the mid-80s--is rendered with startling authenticity--and, yes, even humor. Don't expect to like the characters, but be prepared to understand them as if you knew them all your life. Barbara Rosenthal is a master craftswoman--each sentence is a sculptured gem. I am reading the book a second time and am blown away by how much more I'm getting this time around. An awe-inspiring achievement in more ways than I can get into. RUN to get this book. If you find it tiring, you are a person tired of life. And I do not believe I am exaggerating!!!"
—Stanley Hoffman, Amazon
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“…a fable-like fiction… Each episode…is a well-drawn mise-en-scène of the senses…that carr[ies]…the reader through time and place. [The characters] debate philosophies, science, and concepts of time, but they also know or suspect magical manipulations and interference.… The existential seems to have no problem with the magical as the characters acknowledge God, albeit more as a scientist than as omnipotent….This thinking person’s narrative in Wish for Amnesia is complex and folds back on itself even as it moves forward…. The emphasis lands mostly on the questions What is the present? and How does the future happen? Incidents that seemed inconsequential in the beginning…find their moment again later.… But nothing feels like a set up for a punch line…. [I]nner dialogue mixes it up with the sensuality of being present in the world and interacting with others…. I thought of Thomas Mann[’s]…The Magic Mountain (1924) and how time works in the narrative. The marijuana-fueled thought processes and philosophical ciphering of life in Wish for Amnesia is far more high-minded than the characters’ often callous treatment of each other. Does this make them more relatable? Is it possible to relate to this fiction or should one read it as a fabulous folk tale? The bizarre, somewhat magical, occurrences seem to be so weird and yet run-of-the-mill for the characters at the same time. It is a Möbius strip of science and magic.
But the novel is not bleak. It is a tale told by modern stoners in a post-modern world. It is a wild ride, careening through time, space, and levels of reality….
The writing is rich…. The collisions of the characters are mirrored in the jump cuts in scenes and years.… The 1940s prologue provides a backdrop … against which all subsequent generations seem to have gone forward…. The son of the survivors feels it his duty to save the future from a recurrence of that past: to help humanity move on, even if it means creating a different species than human beings through science and technology.…[P]erhaps, really, humans and their fallibilities will always throw an unexpected wrench into the works. Or, perhaps, as the teenaged parents of Jack managed to escape their fate, something happens to inject chaos into everyone’s plans. Wish for Amnesia is well worth reading. Multiple times."
—Pam Kray, Afterimage
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