Lost in the Funhouse (Barth, John) 1968

Even the author's introduction is precious!  Look, I'm all for experimentation, but if I'm reading your writing, ideally it should be within a story you're telling, and not simply an exercise.  Too many of the short stories in this collection are simply exercises; this is too bad, because the Ambrose tales have experimental elements (nearing the point of pretension in "Lost in the Funhouse") but also tell interesting stories.