My Thoughts on The Autobiography of Satan:

Poor, pitiful Satan. He’s been so misunderstood and gotten a really bad rap all these centuries. And he’s stayed so quiet and continued to take the blame for all the evil in the world, but is it really fair? He believes it’s high time we all hear him out!

Similar to the Screwtape Story?

The Autobiography of Satan by William A. Glasser

The first thing that came to my mind when I began reading The Autobiography of Satan, was C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape Letters is one of my favorite Lewis books and I saw a lot of similarities between the two.

The Screwtape Letters are the correspondence between two demons regarding winning the fate of one Christian. But The Autobiography of Satan is Satan’s side of every story ever told about him in every religion.  (Although, he seems to go back to the Garden of Eden story more than any other.)

And he claims we’ve gotten him ALL wrong.

Like the demons, who believe their side is the “right” side in The Screwtape Letters, so Satan believe he’s the hero in his own story in his autobiography.

Satan’s side of the good vs. evil story…

So Satan transcribes the “real” story to his scribe, Wag, who I assume is some lower level demon. When I realized that W.A.G. is the initials of the author, I laughed out loud.

As Satan retells stories of himself throughout the ages, his tales are broken up by conversations between him and Wag. These conversations were some of my favorite parts of the book! Wag isn’t exactly happy with being chosen to record Satan’s story, and he doesn’t seem to find it all that interesting either… and he’s not quiet about it!

The whole book centers around our perceived reality of good and evil, and Satan’s trying to convince the world that they’ve misjudged him. He’s just trying to open up our minds and give us all the knowledge we’re missing out on! There’s a lot of history and myth surrounding his background and he just wants to set the record straight!

As he says at the start…

Your distorted sense of me has persisted for much too long now, and to your own detriment, I might add, for it has been used incessantly to scare you into an unquestioning state of submission. There have been far too many twisted accounts of me, both mythic and legendary — and all, of course, unauthorized.—Satan

Turns out, he really doesn’t like being portrayed with horns and a tail all the time, either!

Who’s going to enjoy this book…

While I really enjoyed this story, it’s not going to be for everyone. If you’re the type to take things a little too seriously, you’re probably not going to like this book. But if you enjoy a bit of satire and a good dark comedy, this is definitely going to be right up your alley!

There were times when I felt like I got a little too bogged down in a history lesson, but I actually appreciated the detail and it totally fit with Satan’s personality. After all, this is his chance to finally defend himself (and get rid of that horrible image of a red being with horns and a tail) and he needs to make sure we understand exactly where he’s coming from!

I wasn’t really a huge fan of the ending. I’d rate it a full 4 stars if the last chapter just wasn’t there, honestly. But with it, it’s a 3.5 from me.

So I recommend The Autobiography of Satan to fans of The Screwtape Letters and anyone who enjoys a historical satire.