Lost in the Funhouse is a collection of loosely connected short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 that was originally published by John Barth

John Barth

John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...

 in 1968. These postmodern stories examine the art of fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 writing, among other things, and seem to undermine the conventional and predictable nature of fiction. In the fourteen stories, Barth presents a literary "funhouse," a dense maze

Maze

A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...

 that weaves in and out of plot, narration, and a self-conscious attention to the process of writing itself.

The stories

• "Frame-tale"
• "Night-sea Journey"
• "Ambrose His Mark"
• "Autobiography"
• "Water-message"
• "Petition"
• "Lost in the Funhouse"
• "Echo"
• "Two Meditations"
• "Title"
• "Glossolalia"
• "Life-story"
• "Menelaiad"
• "Anonymiad"