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...