http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/books/01suzu.html

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He's doing a U.S. tour to support the new translation of his short story collection "Dark Water," source of the Hideo Nakata movie.

I read "Ring" in translation and found it iffy. An intriguing comparison with the film(s), very different in many ways, much less of a straightforward horror story. But the prose was clunky, although it's hard to say to what extent the translation is responsible.

I'll probably check out some of the shorts, though. He's clearly an interesting guy and I'm always ready to see somebody try to do something ambitious and different with the genre.

I liked the RING novel... But NOT its sequel, SPIRAL, which I found to be ridiculous, dull, badly-written torture. I resold it on the internet the moment I finished the final paragraph. I took all my hatred for Joji Iida's film version back, because I realized Iida was just being faithful to the novel (as a side note, has anyone out there seen Iida's latest film DRAGONHEAD? I'd heard some negative reviews ahead of time, but I absolutely LOVED it). I will definitely pass on LOOP. Maybe DARK WATER will be worth a read, but I must say I thought the movie was pretty ineffective.