Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Perelman, S(idney) J(oseph) - Beatrice Sherman (review date 1943)

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Beatrice Sherman (review date 1943)

SOURCE: "S. J. Perelman's Unlikely Statements," in The New York Times Book Review, January 31, 1943, p. 3.

[In the following review, Sherman discusses the subject matter of The Dream Department, and describes the volume as "lunatic and delightful."]

S. J. Perelman is no Peter Bell. A primrose by a river's brim would never be just a yellow primrose to him. It would always be something more. Likely enough in no time at all it would become a gigantic yellow sunflower, malevolently gnashing its teeth at him, and you too. Anyway Mr. Perelman is not a nature lover—nature faker would be more like it. His particular brand of jittery and joyful madness seems to be the slap-happy result of overexposure to books, magazines and advertisements. Give him a grubby little item in an obscure magazine, or a shiny big ad in one of the slicks, and his lunatic and ludicrous imagination grabs it, plays with...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. The Saturday Review of Literature (review date 1937)
   2. Beatrice Sherman (review date 1943)
   3. Time (review date 1943)
   4. Eudora Welty (review date 1944)
   5. Thomas Sugrue (review date 1944)
   6. Russell Maloney (review date 1946)
   7. Harry Gilroy (review date 1949)
   8. The New York Times Book Review (review date 1950)
   9. Ted Robinson, Jr. (review date 1952)
   10. Herbert Kupferberg (review date 1955)
   11. Dorothy Parker (review date 1957)
   12. Walker Gibson (review date 1958)
   13. Eudora Welty (review dates 1958 and 1970)
   14. Michael Flanders (review date 1962)
   15. The Times Literary Supplement (review date 1962)
   16. S. J. Perelman with William Cole and George Plimpton (interview date 1963)
   17. Norris W. Yates (essay date 1964)
   18. The Times Literary Supplement (review date 1967)
   19. Richard Freedman (review date 1970)
   20. Roderick Nordell (review date 1970)
   21. Stefan Kanfer (review date 1970)
   22. Paul Theroux (review date 1976)
   23. Paul Theroux (review date 1977)
   24. Michael Wood (review date 1978)
   25. Barry Fantoni (review date 1978)
   26. Marshall Brickman (review date 1981)
   27. Terry Teachout (review date 1981)
   28. Wilfrid Sheed (review date 1981)
   29. Prudence Crowther (review date 1984)
   30. Steven H. Gale (essay date 1987)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright