Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti – Genevieve Valentine

Written by: Lena Yang

Do you hear that?

The gentle clanging of gears. A harmonious chord is struck.

You are momentarily blinded; light scatters wildly, ricocheting here and there. The crowd goes wild. It’s the Winged Man, with his feathers of gold.

It’s true, then. Circus Tresaulti is in town.

I don’t know what it is about circuses, but I find them absolutely entrancing. More so when they are forged from paper and ink, with just the right touch of imagination.

2011 saw the release of two novels chronicling the journeys of two circuses: Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Genevieve Valentine’s Mechanique: A Tale of Circus Tresaulti. While Morgenstern’s novel swept readers away with the intricate tale of a circus that operates exclusively at night, Valentine’s similar, albeit much quieter novel tells of a circus showcasing a brass and copper troupe.

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is very much an agglomeration of several genres: steampunk, dark fantasy, and dystopian. It is both a story of a mechanical extravaganza, and of desperate survival. In a world ravaged by war, Circus Tresaulti is a much needed distraction—a touch of magic amidst horror and destruction, if you will. There is Ayar, the Strong Man, with a body made of gears; hollow-boned aerialists and their living trapezes; Stenos and Bird, a hurricane duo; Jugglers, dancing girls, and the tumbling Grimaldi Brothers; and last but not least, Panadrome, who is more instrument than man. Years ago, there had been another act—Alec, the Winged Man—but he is long gone. The ringmaster, Boss, remains heartsick. She guards his wings diligently, while two of her performers engage in a silent standoff. Tension is building; the string is pulled taut. When the war reaches their doorstep, the string finally snaps.

Valentine is exceptionally talented at two things: imaginative writing, and tying together a disjointed storyline.  Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is a nonlinear novel. The main story arc encompasses numerous side stories: characters’ histories, the circus’s origin, the tragedy of Alec’s wings, and more. It’s not one single story, but several told within the frame of one book. In addition, it has a tendency to switch between first, second, and third person perspective. When those two elements are used in combination, the result can be very confusing, especially for readers who prefer straightforward plot lines. However, it seems Valentine is rather adept at finding coherency in fragmented pieces as she has created a fairly successful nonlinear novel.

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is not plot heavy, which allows for easy transitions from chapter to chapter. It is best to just take the novel one chapter at a time rather than trying to line events up in chronological order. Valentine’s novel is much like a large puzzle: attack it in small quantities, one piece at a time, and before long you will find yourself with a coherent whole.

Where the novel fails is in the finer details. The world building is suggestive, at most, and there is an alarming deficiency of explanations and answers. For the most part, the novel is shrouded in mystery, forcing readers to simply go with the flow as Valentine certainly did not intend for the story to make much sense on a logical plane. For all that it lacks plot-wise, it attempts to makes up for in the writing.Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is arguably more of a prose poem than a novel, simply due to Valentine’s exquisite use of language and imagery. However, one cannot substitute x with y and simply call it a night, just as how Valentine’s writing cannot truly remedy the faults in the novel. But, for all intents and purposes, it does make the journey a lot less bumpy than it otherwise would have been.

From cover to cover, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is a tangled, winding journey that is every bit as strange and beautiful as Circus Tresaulti’s mechanical medley. It is not a novel that will appeal to everyone, nor is it a particularly light read. Do not raise too many questions, for you will often find yourself without answers, and quite frustratingly so. Simply take it as it is: a novel of fantastical peculiarities by one of the finer contemporary American writers.

Enjoy it, and let the show begin.