by C. S. Lewis

isbn: 0684831171
subject: Religion, Fiction and Literature
finished: 7/20/2001

The Screwtape Letters is a collection of advice from a senior devil to a less experienced colleague who is attempting to prevent a human from becoming a good Christian. The book, then, operates on several levels. Superficially it's a clever piece of work: although Screwtape is an ill-tempered, humorless individual, his descriptions of humans and of the human condition are often funny and sometimes quite insightful. Unfortunately, the book's true message is too obvious, and it can often be recovered simply by negating whatever Screwtape says. Lewis's unwillingness to cloak his thoughts in more than the thinnest veneer is disappointing, and it makes this book a lot less interesting than it could have been if Screwtape had been a real character rather than a mere rhetorical device. Finally, at the core of the book, there's a useful manual for how to avoid some of the more common (but not always obvious) traps that people fall into, making them unhappier, less pleasant, and less effective.