|
Post by lemming13 on Dec 28, 2010 22:24:58 GMT
Just finished reading Suzuki's Ring, the novel that started off the film franchise. And it's a cracking read. Flows very fast, really superb descriptive writing, and you can easily see why it inspired manga and films. The plot comes in as a selection of jumbled jigsaw pieces that assemble themselves effortlessly before your eyes without actually making it obvious, and winds up in a 'to be continued' ending that had me yelling in frustration. So now I'm buying Spiral, the next story...
|
|
|
Post by lemming13 on Jan 12, 2011 12:03:47 GMT
Just finished Suzuki's short story collection, Dark Water, and again it's rather enjoyable. There are seven stories, with a framing narrative about a grandmother who lives by the sea and provides suitably chilling tales about pieces of flotsam that wash up on the beach for the entertainment of her visiting granddaughter. All the tales are themed around water, and several have been filmed. One thing I at first found a bit offputting, but which grew on me as I read more stories, is that the author doesn't always fill in details and end the stories as a western audience expects. We're used to the Hollywood tradition of having a solid, identifiable end-point to the story; if loose ends are left it usually indicates a sequel is already in the pipeline. Suzuki doesn't always need to tell you how the story ends, and he clearly doesn't mean to tell you in any later work: what is important is how it makes you feel as you read it, the shudders it inspires. So some of them are more a kind of vignette, a moment of horror crystallised for your pleasure and then put aside for the next vision. And he is very, very good at creating memorably disturbing scenes without the kind of visceral gore some writers use. (Not that I'm knocking visceral gore, you understand, but it's nice to have a change). He's even had me looking askance at the little local fishing pool outside my house. [weird update on that: yesterday said pool was surrounded by police and divers, as an elderly lady was found floating in it... ] Here's an idea of the stories involved. Floating Water A working single mum with some serious mental issues about relationships and life, moves into a new apartment with her little daughter, only to find the place almost empty of other tenants and haunted by, of all things, a child's Hello Kitty toy bag - and perhaps by the child. Solitary Isle A teacher once told an alarming confession by a dying friend of how he abandoned his pregnant girlfriend on a restricted island, gets the chance to visit the island legitimately and find out if it was true. The Hold A fisherman who is abusive to his wife and children awakens from a drunken slumber to find his spouse is missing. Dream Cruise A pushy couple keen to recruit a new salesman to the pyramid-selling scheme they hope will make their fortunes take him out for a cruise on their boat in hopes he will be impressed enough to want to achieve the same kind of success. Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with the propeller... Adrift A fishing vessel comes across a luxury yacht adrift and unmanned in a calm sea, and the coastguard ask for it to be towed to a rendezvous point. One of the crew goes aboard to help steer and begins to wonder - what happened to the owners? Watercolours A small indie theatrical company is mounting a production in a disused nightclub when water starts dripping on the leading actress from the ceiling. The sound man goes to investigate... Forest Under the Sea A couple of cavers discover what appears to be a new and previously unknown cavern with a subterranean pool, but a bizarre accident occurs.
|
|
|
Post by lemming13 on Jan 14, 2011 9:52:59 GMT
|
|
|
Post by PeterC on Jan 14, 2011 11:41:21 GMT
Good to read your spot-on appreciation of Mr Suzuki, Lemming. He is more cerebral than Stephen King but less obscure than Robert Aickman.
Dark Water is a tremendous collection. I heard about a new volume of stories, Death and the Flower, in the pipeline but there's no sign of it yet. Update - it seems that Death and the Flower is actually a novel.
And there's still no sign of it.
Ahem.
|
|