Short Story Criticism | Perelman, S(idney) J(oseph) - Dorothy Parker (review date 1957)

Dorothy Parker (review date 1957)

SOURCE: "Humor Takes in Many Things," in The New York Times Book Review, January 20, 1957, pp. 1, 36.

[In the following review of The Road to Miltown, Parker proclaims "Mr. Perelman stands alone in this day of humorists."]

It is a strange force that compels a writer to be a humorist. It is a strange force, if you care to go back farther, that compels anyone to be a writer at all, but this is neither the time nor the place to bring up that matter. The writer's way is rough and lonely, and who would choose it while there are vacancies in more gracious professions, such as, say, cleaning out ferryboats? In all understatement, the author's lot is a hard one, and yet there are those who deliberately set out to make it harder for themselves. There are those who, in their pride and their innocence, dedicate their careers to writing humorous pieces. Poor dears, the world is stacked against them from the...

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