Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Perelman, S(idney) J(oseph) - Ted Robinson, Jr. (review date 1952)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

Ted Robinson, Jr. (review date 1952)

SOURCE: "Perelman in Tune," in The New York Times Book Review, November 9, 1952, p. 44.

[In the following review of The Ill-Tempered Clavichord, Robinson mentions the usual targets of Perelman's satirical wit.]

One of the more interesting mysteries of modern letters, to me, is how S. J. Perelman keeps it up. It was quite a number of years ago that he began writing humor, writing it keyed up very high every sentence of the way, and here he is, still sitting on the edge of his chair constantly writing for all he is worth and still being funny a large part of the time.

What probably happened was that he suffered the misfortune at an early age of succeeding with this generous, packed-down, economy-size style, and he has been stuck with it ever since. Most young writers try to write very intensely at the top of their form every minute, but nobody buys it; later on some of them take it easier...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

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