Young, naïve, inexperienced Scardagger—on his first assignment and so lucky to have his uncle to mentor him through the traumatic process… (His Uncle Slashreap, that is. Not the other uncle, the one who recently devoured Scardagger’s cousin for his catastrophic failure).
Or so Slashreap suggests in this series of letters, originally intended for his nephew’s benefit and printed now in As One Devil to Another.
Throughout these letters transcribed by author Richard Platt, Slashreap pays not-so-subtle homage to C. S. Lewis’s original work, The Screwtape Letters. As his predecessor before him, Slashreap attempts to instruct his nephew and pupil on the proper Demonic Virtues. (Not so much temptation as distraction and confusion.) And, as his predecessor also, he lashes out against his nephew’s inept, idiotic behavior. “The moral is clear: Never allow yourself a moment of innocuous pleasure.”
Why this and not the original? The first few letters read awkwardly, while the book itself relies heavily on that “pestilential writer” Lewis’s work. And yet, As One Devil to Another answers critics in the end with strong, clear writing, as well as an interesting critique of modern culture.
Personally, I found the Slashreap’s choice of a “client” for his nephew to be intriguing—or should that be disturbing? She is young woman, an English major, pursuing her graduate degree (at Oxford University, no less), with ambitions for a university career. I happen to fit the general type, so some of Slashreap’s barbs hit very near home. And, while the nature of art, deconstruction, or academic originality may not interest every reader, Slashreap deals out loquacious advice on many contemporary questions from gender equality and social order to technology and the “Virtual World.”
Slashreap, in fact, falls just short of the original wit and thoughtfulness of The Screwtape Letters. And, the final set of letters reach far toward creating their own brilliant conclusion. Considering the stature of the original, that’s far indeed, and I would recommend this book to anyone who has read Lewis’s.
[This review was originally posted at http://theloremistress.blogspot.com/2012/04/as-one-devil-to-another-review-and.html. I received a review copy of As One Devil to Another from Tyndale House Publishers, in exchange for my honest opinion of this book.]