'With Malice Towards All' is more than just a translation of Dante Alighieri’s 700 year old classic Inferno. It is seated in modern times where a pathetic soul midway through his life’s journey is ushered through a new version of Hell by Dante himself to experience the nine levels of Hell designed to punish modern day sinners.
The fates of irate airline passengers, cell phone abusers and computer addicts along with unscrupulous doctors, lawyers and trades people await those who suffer forever in the Underworld.
The story begins with a lost soul’s laments on the drudgeries of life and an unusual introduction to his escort. Together they pass through a strange portal to face a cavern full of lost souls trapped between Heaven and Hell. After experiencing the new Limbo, our traveler and his Master encounter the ‘Connoisseur of Sin’ who awaits the condemned at the “gates” of Hell where he sorts the souls and casts them to their eternal punishment.
Drunk drivers, the selfish, and a sea of pessimists all dwell at the upper levels of damnation, while farther down reside the bloviators, evangelists and politicians and at the bowels of Hell are those who abused animals, children and the elderly. Meeting the Ultimate Evil at the final Level provides the most unexpected torture of all.
Scattered throughout the story are references to the works of multiple artists from ABBA to Zappa, all while being written in the style of classical literature. So chose, if you dare, to venture into this modern version of eternal punishment as 'With Malice Toward All' intertwines the present with the past to create its own surreal journey of one man’s path from despair to redemption.