Alain Fleischer's 'Les trapézistes et le rat': A Temporal Anamorphosis

Alain Fleischer's novel 'Les trapézistes et le rat' (Éditions du Seuil) explores time through three narrative voices: Peter's story, Sándor's memories, and Marta's letters. The tale begins with Peter and Marta's honeymoon in Transylvania at the Auberge des survivants, a guesthouse for retired circus performers, set against the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina. The young couple engages in sexual variations with each other and the elderly residents—Kruk, Lipsy Gipsy, Klang, Konomor—and even retired circus animals. The narrative shifts when Peter's manuscript is given to his brother-in-law Sándor, to be opened later. Sándor's investigation casts doubt on Peter's account, revealing the inn's real name as Auberge du Terminus. The core of the novel is the couple's deliberate physical separation: when one is in Budapest, the other is in Vienna. They orchestrate a trip to Italy, staying in the same hotels but separate rooms, taking different trains, visiting museums hours apart, yet maintaining intimacy via constant phone calls. Marta's letters reveal that Sándor, her twin brother, is the physical substitute for Peter, leading to two incestuous encounters—one orchestrated by Peter, another spontaneous in Paris at the Cinémathèque française and Trocadéro gardens. The novel uses doubling and anamorphosis to subvert linear time, exemplified by the twins' near-simultaneous birth and a single night that stands for all nights.