{"product_id":"9780385240871","title":"Lost in the Funhouse","description":"\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL 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. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"[Barth] ran riot over literary rules and conventions, even as he displayed, with meticulous discipline, mastery of and respect for them.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom 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 \u003ci\u003eLost in the Funhouse \u003c\/i\u003eare 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.","brand":"John Barth","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback Trade paperback (US)","offer_id":46886875889876,"sku":"9780385240871","price":22.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1000\/9208\/files\/BNCImageAPI_ae8efcdb-9900-4da5-8885-f550d74b8d09.jpg?v=1757369985","url":"https:\/\/penguinshop.ca\/products\/9780385240871","provider":"Penguin Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}