'The Screwtape Letters' by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis (3.0)

Why ‘Screwtape’, ‘Wormwood’, ‘Slubgob’ and other odd names used throughout this book? C. S. Lewis says he brainstormed nasty words such as tapeworm, scrooge, thumbscrew, slob, etc. and used them to form the names of his devils. The main devil is Screwtape and the book is comprised of letters he writes to his nephew, a demon in training. Throughout the story, Screwtape is advising Wormwood how to capture a soul for their team and not His. Lewis has cleverly made the Devil a boss micro managing his Dilbert-like nephew as if they were selling paper in Slough. He set the time during World War II, but advises not to let their charge die during the war, as he is leaning towards the other team and they could lose his soul forever. I was most surprised by the prescience of Lewis with several subjects, such as the Devil’s advice on lowering women’s self-confidence (one of his many suggestions to Wormwood to turn people to the dark side). Though published in 1941, he could have been talking about the body image issues we face with the media and girls today. Given his transition from atheism to Christianity, some of the devil’s irony and sarcasm were a bit much for me, but I could understand given the author’s journey. The book is quite short, but rather difficult to read and digest, mainly due to the language. I would have given it a ‘4’ had it been more accessible.