Literary / Historical Fiction
Date Published: 12-02-2025
Publisher: Scrivener Quill
She and Rhys return to American where their values collide with antithetical and alien attitudes. It is these experiences that come to challenge long-held beliefs and provide a vivid counterpoint to their recent immersion in the Modernist aesthetic and world view.
Resolved to return to France, Gemma shares a final day in America with Gerald Murphy at his ocean front Hampton estate. As this unhurried afternoon unfolds, it becomes clear that Gemma’s skepticism and doubtfulness have been replaced with a clear-sighted maturity and hardened resolve. The next morning, aboard the Ile de France, Gemma and Rhys sail for France.
Interview with Stephen Asher
Could you tell us about any research trips you took for this story? Which places did you visit, and what made them essential to your writing?
Ceremony of Innocence is, in a sense, peripatetic. Gemma Danforth’s years, from girlhood to maturity, began in Boston/New England/Hamptons, followed by a year in Provence, then Scotland, Tennessee/Mississippi, and New York and finally Paris. These are regions where I have spent time over many decades and where I collected mental images and experiences from which are drawn the places and events that shape the story. The concept of place is one of the structural elements of the story.
What's the strangest thing you've ever had to research online for your book?
The book is literary/historic fiction and, thus, attempts to dodge “strangeness,” a word that I feel refers to genres such as gothic etc. However, a facet of the story that is fascinating to the point of being quite unimaginable is how, at a glamorous dinner party on the Cote d’Azur, the host, who suffered from a severe stammer, gradually shed his speech impediment as he became engrossed in conversation with Gemma. This phenomenon is factual and, in a career that centered on disorders of movement, one that I encountered not infrequently.
What research (history, mythology, science) goes into your world-building?
In terms of research, I have been a lifelong reader and, probably in tandem with the growth of my own values, I became swept up in the rapid emergence of new ideas and ways of artistic expression that flowered in the years between the end of the Belle Epoque until the onset of the Great Depression. This led to reading the works of many of the European Modernists and some early 20th century American writers. Also, and as you may be aware, I was a neurologist, a branch of medicine that occupies the liminal space between the brain and the mind and thus became privy to some of the deepest, life-changing and even tragic chapters in many lives.
Have any of the people you've known, past or present, left a lasting impression on your writing journey? If so, we'd love to hear about a memorable experience that stands out to you.
In terms of exposure to other lives that have left a lasting impact on my writing life, I read a biography of Tommy Hitchcock, whom F.S. Fitzgerald used as a model for Tom Buchanan in Gatsby. Although each of their personas differed in important ways, both came to reflect the good, bad and carelessness of the ultra-rich.
Do you write in the same genre all the time?
My choices of genres have varied but, by whatever route, I seem to find my way into the inner life of my characters. So, whether a story is set amidst contemporary sporting life, or in the early-mid 20th century, all find their way to values, choices and beliefs.
If so, have you ever consider writing in another one?
Yes, I am in the midst of a set of reminiscences regarding a famous animal. Some of the book’s elements are impressionistic while others are historic.
Which character, supernatural or human, do you enjoy writing the most and why?
I am drawn towards a central character, in young to mid-life, who is intelligent, non-dogmatic, questioning, and mildly unsettled.
About the Author
Asher and his wife were drawn to Idaho’s arid vistas, glistening rivers, and rugged skylines. As a travelling angler, he has pursued Atlantic salmon throughout their natural range, has sought sea run brown trout in Patagonia, and steelhead in his home waters in the Pacific Northwest. He and his wife have cycled much of France, and, during quiet times at home, he enjoys music and plays cello.
Previously, he has published essays, and short pieces in the British sporting literature. He is a member of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, the Barbara Pym Society, and is a proud supporter of PEN America. He lives in Idaho with his wife, adult children, and his bird dogs.
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