Lost in the FunhouseNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • John Barth's lively, highly original collection of short pieces is a major landmark of experimental fiction exploring themes of purpose and the meaning of existence. "[Barth] ran riot over literary rules and conventions, even as he displayed, with meticulous discipline, mastery of and respect for them." —The New York Times From its opening story, "Frame-Tale"--printed sideways and designed to be cut out by the reader and twisted into a never-ending Mobius strip--to the much-anthologized "Life-Story," whose details are left to the reader to "fill in the blank," Barth's acclaimed collection challenges our ideas of what fiction can do. Highlights include the Homerian story-wthin-a-story-within-a-story (times seven) of "Menalaiad,' and "Night-Sea Journey," a first-person account of a confused human sperm on its way to fertilize an egg. All of the characters in Lost in the Funhouse are searching, in one way or another, for their purpose and the meaning of their existence. Together, their stories form a kaleidescope of exuberant metafictional inventiveness. |
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Aegisthus Agamemnon Ambrose Ambrose's amphorae asked Aunt Rosa beach at Pharos bees blank boardwalk brother cetera et cetera character Clytemnestra cried declared Deiphobus ditto dream drowned East Dorset Eidothea Erdmann eyes fact father fellow fetched fiction funhouse girl goats Grandfather grinned hammock hand heart Helen hold imagine John Barth knew Lacedemon laugh less look lost lovers Magda Menelaus Merope mind minstrel mother muse Mycenae Narcissus narrative narrator never night night-sea journey novel Ocean City Odysseus once Paris passion Peggy Peisistratus perhaps Perse Peter played Proteus Queen roman à clef Sandy Cooper secret smile snatched song speak stood story supposed swarm swim swimmers tale teased Telemachus tell Thalia there's things tion Tiresias told Trojan Troy turned Uncle Karl Uncle Konrad voice watch What's wife Willy Erdmann Wimpy wine woman wonder words Zeus