Die derde spoel

by S.J. Naudé

Etienne is twee-en-twintig en studeer filmkuns in London nadat hy uit Suid-Afrika gevlug het om diensplig te vermy. Dit is 1986, die tyd van Thatcher, optogte teen apartheid, en Vigs, maar ook van eksperimentele kuns, postpunk en die Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

Etienne raak verlief op ’n Duitse kunstenaar in hierdie skadustad waar mense in bouvallige kunstenaarskommunes woon.

In Londen kom Etienne af op die eerste van drie filmspoele wat tydens die dertigerjare in Duitsland verfilm is. Etienne begin na die verlore spoele soek, ’n soektog wat ’n obsessie word wanneer sy geliefde vermis raak in Berlyn. Terwyl Etienne die gevaarlike ruimtes weerskante van die Muur navigeer, begin die verhaal van ’n groepie Joodse filmmakers in Nazi-Duitsland vorm aanneem.

Etienne word egter teruggeruk na die hede en na Suid-Afrika, maar sy soektog na die vermiste film duur voort.

Argitektuur, kinematografie, seks, musiek, siekte, verlies en liefde deurweek SJ Naudé se kosmopolitaanse en roerende Die derde spoel, waarmee hy nuwe grond vir die roman in Afrikaans breek.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, South Africa, LGBT

344 pages, Softcover

First published May 1, 2017

About the author

S.J. Naudé is the author of The Alphabet of Birds, a prize-winning collection of short stories published in Afrikaans, English and Dutch. He studied law at the University of Pretoria as well as at Cambridge and Columbia. He also holds a master’s degree in creative writing. He is a past winner of the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize and the Jan Rabie Rapport Prize, and was awarded the Jan Rabie and Marjorie Wallace Writing Scholarship for 2014. His work has appeared in Granta and journals in the United States, the Netherlands, and Italy. Having worked in New York and London for many years, he currently lives in Johannesburg.

S.J. Naudé is die skrywer van Alfabet van die voëls, wenner van die Universiteit van Johannesburg-debuut en die Jan Rabie Rapport-prys. Hy het in die regte aan die Universiteit van Pretoria en aan Cambridge en Columbia studeer en verwerf ’n meestersgraad in kreatiewe skryfkuns aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch. Alfabet van die voëls verskyn ook in Nederlands en Engels. Die Jan Rabie & Marjorie Wallace-skrywersbeurs vir 2014 is aan hom toegeken en sy werk is gepubliseer in Granta en tydskrifte in die vsa, Nederland en Italië. Na jare in New York en Londen, woon hy tans in Johannesburg.

Reviews

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wonder if there are other readers out there who buy both Kindle versions and ‘real’ books? The Third Reel is a beautiful physical object – Umuzi always does such a great job – that I bought a copy from Exclusive Books when it was first published. But then I didn’t want to scribble in its pages, hence the Kindle version which I could highlight to my heart’s content.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that both versions have different frontispiece quotes. Below is the Kindle version:

Du warst mein Tod:
dich konnte ich halten,
während mir alles entfiel.
You were my death:
you I could hold
when all fell away from me.
—PAUL CELAN, Fadensonnen (1968)

And here is the quote used in the Umuzi paperback:

”Es ist niemals ein Dokument der Kultur, ohne zugleich ein solches der Barbarei zu sein.”
There is no document of civilisation that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.
—WALTER BENJAMIN, Geschichtsphilosophische Thesen, vii

Okay, the Benjamin quote is definitely a bit more obscure. It seems to allude to the fact that the book takes place in 1986, “the time of Thatcher, anti-apartheid campaigns and Aids”. A large chunk of the book is also set in East Berlin prior to unification, which South Africa’s ruling apparatchik wannabees must look back on as a time of great nostalgia, when the State was Everything (but which it clearly was not, as Naudé is at great pains to point out here.)

The Kindle quote, which I actually prefer, punches to the gut of this book, which is a snot en trane love story that will sucker-punch you at the end due to its unanticipated intensity and consequences. The devastating emotional impact took me completely by surprise, especially as the book is written in such a cool and distant style, heavy on metaphor and poetic turns of phrasing and observation that, while wondrous to read, distances the reader from the characters.

If I could describe this book in two words, it would have to be “haunting and brilliant”, which is exactly what Garth Greenwell states in his front cover blurb. The back cover blurb quotes more of what I suspect is a review by Greenwell, in which he refers to The Third Reel as “Bildungsroman, intellectual mystery, and thriller reimagined as vision quest.” Oh, he forgot love story … but then Greenwell has always had a rather jaundiced view of love (as do so many contemporary gay writers, it seems).

I am normally against the commodification of fiction by the means of cover blurbs by famous writers, not to mention that awful marketing double speak that if you enjoyed this novel by X you’ll be over the moon by Y because it is more of the same! In this case, however, I sincerely hope that the Greenwell stamp leads curious international readers to discover SJ Naudé for themselves.

A lot of this book’s formal experimentation and thematic resonances were explored in Naudé’s short story collection The Alphabet of Birds. As with The Third Reel, he seems to have translated both books into English himself – which must be incredibly difficult, and possibly one of the greatest forms of literary masochism possible, in that you are basically writing the same book twice.

The Umuzi soft cover also gets the page number wrong for accrediting the incredible poem ‘William Blake’ by DJ Opperman (242 as opposed to 240). I find it fitting that Naudé retains the original Afrikaans, because Opperman – a leading twentieth century South African poet – is clearly a major influence on his thought and writing. (I was amazed to discover that Opperman was even editor of Huisgenoot at one stage!)

Reading this oblique novel, which has so much to say in its shadowy margins about identity, cultural appropriation, exile, family and love, one would never imagine that the shadow of Opperman would loom so large over the text. Not only is it unfashionable, it is probably politically incorrect to boot.

Which is ultimately very short-sighted, and which has always been the major shortcoming of the PC brigade: its built-in irrelevance. What Naudé is arguing with this magical book is that we need to reclaim our history and transmute it into a different, malleable substance from which we can build a more durable and meaningful future.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sjoe. Naudé het hiermee bewys dat hy 'n "Könner" ('n "kanner"), soos die Duitsers dit uitdruk, is. Die hoofkarakter se naam is Etienne en hy ontsnap 'n teneerdrukkende en haaglikke lewensomstandigheid om sy eie klein tuintjie te probeer voed. Hierdie roman funksioneer terselfdertyd as 'n bildungsroman sowel as 'n reisroman, en les bes 'n eksielnarratief.

Die boek is sterk intertekstueel: Karel Schoeman se Noorderlig sowel as Walter Benjamin se Berliner Kindheit is duidelik van ter sprake, maar ek vermoed 'n verdere betrekking is François Loots se onlangste gay roman, 'In sneeu geskryf'. Étienne is alleen en het feitlik niemand op die aarde nie, hy moet dus iemand vind wat die leemtes in sy lyf (ahem) en gees kan toesmeer. Die vulsel se naam is Axel, en die soektog na hom en die spoele van die film waaroor hy obsessief ('monomanies') geraak het druk die narratief na vore en uiteindelik word die saak ietwat geklaar (ek wil nie die plot sommer net so weggee nie).
VIGS en die ontsaglike lyding wat dit veroorsaak het onder gay mans veral word kil beskryf. Niks soetsappig nie, net die aftakeling en eensaamheid daarvan.

Naude se Afrikaans is pragtig, suiwer verby. Dit dui daarop aan, dat formele, suiwere Afrikaans nie droog en sonder gees hoef te wees nie. Dis 'n moeilike boek, maar juis vir daai rede pas dit ons tydsgewrig so goed. Ons lewe in 'n intellektuele Eden maar ons gedagtes is klein en van geringe werd.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set partly in London but mainly in 1980s Berlin this complex tale concerns Etienne, a student who has abandoned his studies in native South Africa to avoid conscription and the homophobic bullying he has suffered. He gains admission to the London Film School and a study period in East Germany. Here he becomes involved with the music scene and the burgeoning gay community, where he meets Axel, a controversial artist.
The main part of the plot is about Etienne searching for Axel, who at a time when their relationship is flourishing, disappears, and also for an obscure 1930s film about Germany made by Jewish filmmakers.
It could be described as a mystery novel, or even a thriller, but more accurately it is a personal journey of discovery with an underlying message for a better understanding of diversity.

[Waldimar Pelser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Donker en meestal indrukwekkend. 'n Reis deur die psigoges van homofobiese laat 80s Suid-Afrika, elektries gelaaide grungy Londen en albei Berlyne deur die siniese oë van 'n jong man wat in die liefde aanhou glo.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it in the English version. Totally absorbing and engrossing. Pace of a thriller, but with the attention to character and place of the best literary fiction

[Keith Bain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book scorched my soul.

[Paul McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would be in my top ten of novels, very enjoyable read. The ending will
Iive a long time in the memory.

[Jan Cölle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing, deep, moving and poetic. Not for the faint hearted though.

[ids · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hierdie was die tipe boek wat ek nooit weer sal lees nie, maar wat ek wel bly is dat ek gelees het.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a strange and special book and i liked it a lot

[Fiona Ayerst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Into a mid-1980s London of Thatcherism, post-punk, Aids, anti-apartheid campaigning and general greyness comes Etienne, a 22-year-old South African who has fled his homeland to avoid conscription and escape his homophobic father. He finds love there, meeting a taboo-breaking German artist named Axel while living in run-down squats and studying film. When Etienne discovers the first of three reels of an obscure German film from the 1930s, he becomes determined to find the other two. His quest takes him to pre-unification Berlin, where Axel has disappeared and where Etienne finds evidence of a group of Jewish filmmakers who operated during the Nazi era. It’s is a multi-layered work that delves deeply into the themes of identity and love, in which Etienne’s quest for truth becomes an exploration of himself and ultimately draws him back to the land of his birth. I found it to be a highly descriptive novel, outstanding in its ability to take you to the moment. A huge haunting and accomplished novel with both literary depth and a powerful emotional charge.