Lost in the Funhouse
John Barth
(Author)
Description
NATIONAL 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.
Product Details
Price
$16.00
$14.88
Publisher
Anchor Books
Publish Date
March 01, 1988
Pages
224
Dimensions
5.15 X 8.53 X 0.5 inches | 0.41 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780385240871
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
About the Author
John Barth (1930-2024) was an American writer celebrated for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. Barth's first novel, The Floating Opera, was published in 1956, followed by The End of the Road. Barth achieved critical and commercial success in the 1960s with The Sot-Weed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy. His collection of interconnected stories, Lost in the Funhouse, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1969. His other works include Chimera, a collection of three novellas that won the National Book Award in 1973; Letters, an epistolary novel; Sabbatical: A Romance; and The Friday Book, a collection of essays.
