What the two novels share is a sense, very powerfully conveyed, of the Chinese uplands as sad, rather hopeless places, caught in their rituals and superstitions, grubby and casually cruel, with a stubborn but vulnerable populace clutching their gods in threadbare villages. To this the new book adds scenes of cold mountain temples where shivering monks wrapped in blankets offer Tibetan tsampa and pipes of opium to the benighted traveler.
It's a highly poetic vision, and it's clearly one Smith, one of the most original voices to appear in British fiction in recent years, doesn't want to let go of. So, where will he go from here? "The novel I'm working on now is set among second generation Chinese people living in London, and their imagined idea of what China might be like. As a result, it's a slightly mythical, magical China. They're imagining how their ancestors were, and it's set on what they imagine the West River used to be like. The three books will make a trilogy."
Lastly, I asked Sid if he had any thoughts about SARS in the light of some of the details he put into Something Like a House.
"There's this long history of so-called Asian flu," he said. "Apparently it's because ducks and human beings live very close together in Southeast Asia. I'd prefer to stick with this straight-forward explanation rather than considering anything else."
Sid Smith is essentially a visionary, and he sees into other people's visions of the world. Few residents of this planet view life in a rational, scientific way. Instead, they are guided by folk beliefs, taboos, outlandish theories, and dreams. Smith's two extraordinary novels alert us to this, and transport some unfamiliar world-views -- as well as some more recent myths -- from the remoter corners of the planet into the rooms and offices of modern, urban man.
Sid Smith's A House by the River and Something Like a House are both published by Picador.
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