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A beloved classic returns: S. J. Perelman's own selection of the very best of his hilarious stories and sketches
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Joshua Cohen (The Netanyahus) reintroduces America's zaniest humorist to a new generation of readers
When asked about himself the writer Sidney Joseph Perelman once quipped, "before they made him, they broke the mold." Nowhere is S. J. Perelman's one-of-a-kind, madcap sensibility—his gift for wordplay, witticism, spoofery, and sheer nonsense—on better display than in his classic collection Crazy Like a Fox, here restored to print for the first time in decades.
In a playful, loving tribute to the funny man, novelist Joshua Cohen—also an erudite wordsmith and punster—introduces Perelman’s sui generis comic pieces to a new generation of readers, certain to fall in love with the writer whom The New York Times once noted for his ability “to transform the common cliché or figure of speech into an exploding cigar.”
Included here are such beloved classics as:
Here is Perelman's own selection of the very best of his inimitable humor, restored to print for the first time in decades.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Joshua Cohen (The Netanyahus) reintroduces America's zaniest humorist to a new generation of readers
When asked about himself the writer Sidney Joseph Perelman once quipped, "before they made him, they broke the mold." Nowhere is S. J. Perelman's one-of-a-kind, madcap sensibility—his gift for wordplay, witticism, spoofery, and sheer nonsense—on better display than in his classic collection Crazy Like a Fox, here restored to print for the first time in decades.
In a playful, loving tribute to the funny man, novelist Joshua Cohen—also an erudite wordsmith and punster—introduces Perelman’s sui generis comic pieces to a new generation of readers, certain to fall in love with the writer whom The New York Times once noted for his ability “to transform the common cliché or figure of speech into an exploding cigar.”
Included here are such beloved classics as:
- the Joycean virtuoso performance “Scenario”
- “A Farewell to Omsk,” Perelman's hilarious homage to Dostoevsky
- and “Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer," his side-splitting send-up of the hardboiled detective fiction of Raymond Chandler
Here is Perelman's own selection of the very best of his inimitable humor, restored to print for the first time in decades.
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“SJ Perelman's works lose a bit of steam when they're written as mini-plays. His reviews of magazines, however, are exquisite and intelligently funny. 'A Farewell to Omsk,' in particular, was brilliant: it parodies Dostoevsky's works and characters, from their repetitious names (Rodion Romanovich) to the 'noble prostitute' found in his major opuses. 'Somewhere a Roscoe ... ' makes fun of detective pulp fiction admirably, and 'Beauty and the Bee' juxtaposes a bee journal with a lingerie magazine.
It took me supreme effort to read this work, because Perelman is at master with the legerdemain of words. His writing is occasionally as dense as it is allusive, so it takes a wide vocabulary in order to appreciate his highbrow humor. There's a reason why humorists nowadays are more of the slapstick than the literary variety: intelligence among people is in a persistent, tragic declivity. Although some of the topical humor has aged poorly, his literary critiques remain to be sharp, mordant, and extremely witty. To me, he's even better than James Thurber.”
About S. J. Perelman
Sidney Joseph Perelman (1904–1979) was a longtime contributor to The New Yorker, in which he first published many of his humorous essays and sketches, and travel pieces. He also wrote film scripts for the Marx Brothers and shared an Oscar in 1956 with James Poe and James Farrow for the screenplay of Around the World in Eighty Days.
Joshua Cohen is the author of The Netanyahus, winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and several other works of fiction, including Witz (2010), Book of Numbers (2015), and Moving Kings (2017) as well as the nonfiction work ATTENTION: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction (2018).
Joshua Cohen is the author of The Netanyahus, winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and several other works of fiction, including Witz (2010), Book of Numbers (2015), and Moving Kings (2017) as well as the nonfiction work ATTENTION: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction (2018).
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