Catholic Register: Pope Francis told an interviewer that he liked Dostoyevsky. He had quite a serious reading list. Would you hope that he might enjoy your book?

Dorothy Cummings McLean: I think Pope Francis would like my book because Pope Francis seems very open to pop culture. One of the first things I found out about Pope Francis after he was elected was that he loved the Tango. I have friends who are involved in the Tango scene here in Edinburgh and I thought, you know that’s really interesting. In my novel there are nightclubs, there are parties, there are parties on boats, there’s a lot of football (soccer). There’s a lot of pop-cultural things in my novel because of course this is the world we live in. We don’t live in a world that’s high culture, low culture, medium culture and sport. I would like to think he would like my book.

CR: Is it necessary for a Catholic writer who wants to write from the point of view of faith to somehow reincarnate themselves as G.K. Chesterton or Hilaire Belloc or Graham Greene? Do we have to re-inhabit the early 20th century?

DM: No, we don’t have to do that, though I think some of those models are very good models for novelists like me. These are definitely our forefathers — and our foremothers as well in the case of Muriel Spark and Alice Thomas Ellis. We need to know our heritage as Catholic writers. However, that said, we need to be more aware and more conscious of what Catholic writers are doing today. People don’t often talk about this, but Tom Clancy had a Catholic education. I don’t know what Tom Clancy’s faith life was like after he graduated from what is now Loyola of Marymount, however you can see in his work traces of Catholicism.

There are many Christian and Catholic writers working today. We just have to be a little more aware of who they are. CR: There are Catholic writers whose religious background is often noted but aren’t usually included in the discussion of Catholic writers, in the sense that they’re thought of as writing against their religious heritage. Annie Proulx is a very distinguished, very great writer. Don Delillo is certainly a Catholic author. Colm Toibin, you know his latest book has certainly enraged many Catholics.

DM: Not as many as he would like to think. There was a very funny article in (the British weekly) The Catholic Herald about how Colm Toibin is actually surprised that not as many Catholics are as angry as he would like them to be.

The publishing industry is in a bit of a crisis as far as fiction is concerned. One of the positive things for writers who identify as Catholic and are writing fiction is that niche publishing is still OK. I think as people are looking for identity there’s going to be a market for writers who identify themselves as Catholic and writers who identify themselves as Muslim.

CR: Is your goal as a writer to address a specific and highly motivated audience or would you like to be Tom Clancy? Would you like to address the culture as a whole?

DM: I would like anybody who picks up my book to enjoy it. I don’t think this is possible, however. I’m a somewhat controversial writer. People will pick up my book and they might read it to the end and then throw it across the room. However, I would prefer that my book appeals to a wide audience. And if that wide audience is only Catholics, well that’s a billion people.

One thing I’m proud of in my novel is that there’s many different levels. On one level it’s a who- done-it adventure story. On the other hand I’ve got a lot of critical questions that are being asked in a rather open and blunt way — questions people might not want to talk about in polite company but are interested in thinking about in the privacy of their own room or in their seat on the airplane.

CR: So why write about neo-Nazis and violence?

DM: I wanted to write about Germany and my experiences in Germany. And about Europe in general because there seems to be a huge loss. There’s a crisis of cultural memory in Europe right now, particularly in Germany where people are still haunted by the Second World War and by guilt about the Second World War.

And there’s a lot of migration out of Europe and into Europe — Eastern Europeans moving westward and Africans moving northward — and that’s creating divisions and difficulties. Also, unemployment and the financial crash has caused some young people to take out their frustrations by joining far right-wing movements or far left-wing movements.

CR: When you were thinking about this book, how did you come up with the title?

DM: The title came when the book was finished. I was talking to my (Scottish) husband about the Scottish parts of the book. The protagonist is a Scot. He went through the book to make sure I didn’t use any Americanism or Canadianisms. I wanted a title that encompassed the idea of naiveté, the idea of absence from guilt, the idea of the shared Christian baptism of many of the characters and the protagonist’s reluctance to marry. My husband suggested Ceremony of Innocence because I had already quoted from (William Butler) Yeats’ (poem) “The Second Coming” in the book. I think my title sums up or reflects the ideas of guilt and innocence, of religious faith, of baptism, and of marriage.

CR: You were saying yesterday that you love your characters. How do you love a character?

DM: I love my characters the way that people love any creation. I’m also very proud of some cakes that I make. The thing with my characters is that they have personalities of their own. But I took a lot of care that they be distinct. Each is a distinct person, not a stereotype. Each having their own particular quirks.

I really enjoyed writing them. Actually it’s because of the characters that I was so really happy to get my book published.