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

Perelman, S(idney) J(oseph) - Beatrice Sherman (review date 1943)

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...

[The entire page is 660 words long]

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