Lost in the Funhouse

Lost in the Funhouse is a short story collection where a few of the stories share the same set of characters. However, most stories only connect thematically. The collection begins with “Frame-Tale,” which asks the reader to cut out a part of the book and create a Möbius strip, which reads “Once open a time there was a story that began.” Next, the story “Night-Sea Journey” presents a mock-epic tale of fertilization in which a sperm cell watches in horror as millions of other sperm cells die around him. However, at the end of the story, the sperm cell manages to fertilize an egg.

Although not explicitly linked to “Night-Sea Journey,” the next story in the collection, “Ambrose, His Mark”, begins with a birth. Ambrose—the narrator of the story—describes the circumstances of his birth and the unusual way he got his name. When Ambrose was a baby, bees swarmed him and his mother, Andrea. However, Ambrose never got stung. Following the incident, his family names him Ambrose after Saint Ambrose, who turned into a great speaker after bees swarmed him as a child.

Next, the story “Autobiography: A Self-Recorded Fiction” features an unnamed narrator who appears to know that they are a character in a novel. The narrator questions the nature of their existence and eventually asks their creator to end their stream of consciousness. A few sentences later, the story abruptly ends.

The next story returns to Ambrose, who is now in grade school. Ambrose and his older brother, Peter, go on an adventure in the woods and find a couple engaging in sexual activity. Peter knows what is going on, but Ambrose is too young to understand. Soon after, Peter sends Ambrose away to the beach while Peter hangs out with his friends. On the beach, Ambrose finds a message in a bottle, though the message only includes “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN” and “YOURS TRULY.”

The next story in the collection is “Petition,” a story about conjoined twins who dislike each other. One of the twins is convinced that his brother wants him dead, so he writes a letter to the King of Siam, asking if it is possible for them to be surgically separated.

After “Petition” is the eponymous “Lost in the Funhouse,” the final story in the collection featuring Ambrose. In this story, Ambrose and his family take a trip to Ocean City with Magda, a 14-year-old girl Ambrose has a crush on. At this point, Ambrose is 13, going through puberty, and extremely self-conscious. Throughout the narrative, the narrator repeatedly interrupts to describe the structure of the story at a formal level. The narrator insists that the form of “Lost in the Funhouse” is extremely abnormal. Ambrose wants to go in a funhouse with Magda at ocean city but fears he will never find his way out. Ultimately, Ambrose, Peter, and Magda go to the funhouse together, but Ambrose quickly gets separated from his brother and Magda. Just as he feared, Ambrose gets lost and cannot find his way out. He imagines himself living forever in the funhouse and telling stories to himself. In reality, Ambrose knows he will get out of the funhouse, but he feels as though he has permanently lost his chance at love.

“Lost in the Funhouse” is followed by a series of short, experimental stories, “Echo,” “Two Meditations,” “Title,” “Glossolalia,” and “Life-Story.” This series of stories explore new ways of approaching fiction while simultaneously expressing the frustration involved with creating something that is genuinely new. For instance, the narrator of “Life-Story” is attempting to write an autobiography but has to start over again repeatedly. Meanwhile, “Echo” features a character who is merely echoing someone else rather than creating something new and original.

The penultimate story in the collection is “Menelaiad,” which sees Menelaus, the figure of Greek myth, reciting his experiences during the Trojan War. In particular, Menelaus details his encounter with Proteus, the shapeshifting sea god. Proteus makes Menelaus have an identity crisis, as watching Proteus shift his form makes Menelaus wonder how one would know the difference between himself and Proteus. At the end of the story, Menelaus declares that he is Proteus, claiming that the real Menelaus died long ago.

The final story in Lost in the Funhouse is “Anonymiad,” which is narrated by a minstrel trapped alone on an island. The minstrel comes from humble beginnings. He travels around with his romantic partner, Merope, and plays his lyre. One day, Clytemnestra, the queen, invites him to the court of Agamemnon. There, he becomes popular and successful, though his relationship with Merope starts to disintegrate. While Agamemnon is away at war, a man named Aegisthus comes to court and attempts to seduce both Clytemnestra and Merope. Because Aegisthus sees the minstrel as a threat, he tricks the minstrel into traveling to a remote island. There, Aegisthus abandons the minstrel. Left alone with nothing else to do, the minstrel spends all of his time writing. The minstrel creates new genres and forms of storytelling, which makes him immensely happy. However, the more he writes, the more he finds it difficult to keep coming up with new and interesting ways to tell a story. Eventually, the minstrel writes his last story, “Anonymiad,” which he sends out to sea in a bottle.”