Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, is a different and ambitious book, presenting a strange world with a fascinating style.

The Circus Tresaulti is known for its extraordinary members: people who have had various parts of their body – such as their legs, eyes, or even their heart – replaced by gears, scrap metal, and utensils of iron and steel. These pieces are set inside their bodies by the circus’ director – to whom everyone refers simply as “Boss” – to make them more resistant than their original selves, helping their work in the place. The process is absurdly painful and, in the end, it is not only the physical aspect of the person that has just been modified: what Boss uses in her work is not any known science but something much more costly, which cages the souls of her subordinates and makes them practically immortal.

The novel has three distinct plotlines: the maturing journey of the young protagonist George; the troubling dynamic between the rest of the troupe; and the threat posed by the “Government Man”, who intends to learn Boss’s gift.

In George’s chapters, a first-person narration, which commonly appears in novels of formation, is appropriately present. The boy watches the circus with innocent fascination at the beginning, marveling at its peculiarities, without noticing the horrors that led it to exist – Boss’s work, for example, instead of frightening him, catches only his curiosity. The first-person narration, then, serves to bring us closer to the character’s perspective, making the narrative gain an air of magic and wonder.

But when the narrator comments on the circus, they address us readers directly, aiming to present us to the acts as if we were physically there: “You pay your admission to a man who looks like he could knock out a steer.” The narrator accompanies us through the tents and positions us correctly in the audience, guiding our gaze to what must be observed. This lends the narrative a creepy atmosphere: we know that the circus is aware of our presence, making us feel uncomfortable.

Boss is a complex character, treated by her employees almost as an omniscient goddess: she has created them, establishes what is right and wrong, and is always watching them. The discomfort caused by the text’s direct approach to the reader encourages us to understand that, no matter how much George loves the circus, there is something very wrong going on behind the curtains.

While commenting on the circus’s internal conflicts and the plot surrounding the Government Man, there’s an omniscient third-person narrator presenting us to this strange troupe, made up of very exotic individuals who don’t always maintain a harmonious relationship with each other.

The characters that best exemplify this aspect are Bird and Stenos. Bird is a girl who, shortly after being accepted by the circus, fell off the trapeze and was badly injured. Boss fixed her – one of her eyes turned to glass – and put her in another act, which she is to execute alongside Stenos – a thief who, seeing in the circus a source of food more reliable than theft, decided to be part of it. Although they train together every day and perform the act in tune, they hate each other for coveting the same thing: a pair of mechanical wings.

The wings created by Boss are the forbidden fruit of the circus and its best symbol. One day they took possession of Alec – a kind man, loved by Boss and the whole troupe – who ended every show by flying over the audience, that is, until he fell during a performance and died when he hit the ground. The wings represent the dichotomy of the circus: on the one hand, they enchant people – the feathers even produce musical notes when swayed by the wind – but, on the other, they remind us of the greatest tragedy that struck the place and of the blood and suffering that the circus is built on.

The omniscient narrator is used to make cynical comments about the characters’ true feelings. There are parentheses throughout the whole text, sometimes denying the intentions declared by the characters right after they’re told, sometimes revealing the error of their actions, pointing at the mistakes in their plans. This style is undeniably efficient in immersing us into a cruel and merciless world where people are always wrong or lying.

The setting in which Mechanique’s story unfolds is so inhospitable and terrible that people prefer to submit to being transformed into puppets and work for a mysterious circus than continue with their normal lives. When Boss warns about the risk of death during the mechanization process, they feel relief: as one of the characters thinks, if the worst happens, life would be one less thing to worry about. The cities they visit – always in ruins – have no name. Those who are not part of the circus are treated only by their position in society – usually their profession – and quickly left aside by the story. Characters are always reflecting on the fragility of their lives and the constant oppression to which they are subjected.

In this world, art ceased to exist: there are no more movie theaters or stages to present a play, only the Circus Tresaulti. The Government Man, the main antagonist in the book, wants to bring art back to the world, but he wants to rebuild it according to his principles, using it as a political tool to manipulate the people. The Government Man says that the members of the circus are soldiers and that their gifts are the key to the realization of his dream. Boss is appalled by this prospect and defends that the members of the circus are, first and foremost, artists. It’s because of this that, when the narrative culminates in battles and armed confrontations, the tone is rarely exciting but sad and filled with melancholy.

The story, for the most part, is told in the present tense. In some cases, this choice is justifiable – for example, when the daily life in the circus is being exposed (“She raises her arms, and the crowd noisily hushes itself”), or when there is a dialogue with the reader (“You can see one with a false leg, but these days there are so many bombs and so many people to remake; one shiny leg is no surprise“). At other times, though, the present tense feels off, especially when the action being described in the present actually happened in the past. However, the feeling of the passage of time is off in the circus, especially for the protagonist – who never thinks to have lived there for a long time – and perhaps this is the reason for this confusion between tenses: to cause in us the same disorientation of the characters.

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is a daring book where Genevieve Valentine builds a complex and inventive narrative structure that enhances the story and makes it unique.

January 23, 2025.

Review originally published in Portuguese on March 30, 2015.