Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton teaches American literature and writing classes at the University of Texas. She writes frequently about the modern short story. In this essay she suggests that readers can enjoy the funhouse even if they are privy to its hidden works.
The narrator of Lost in the Funhouse asks a straightforward question in its opening lines: "For whom is the funhouse fun?" and then suggests a possible answer: "Perhaps for lovers." One of the things the story will go on to do is test that hypothesis. Will it always be a place of fear and confusion for Ambrose, or will he learn to appreciate the pleasure of its apparent pointlessness? Are lovers the only ones who find it fun? The narrator is, like Ambrose, one who would "rather be among the lovers for whom funhouses are.....
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