Panorama City

With its blend of fools wisdom and deeply felt humanity,Panorama Cityis heir to Marilynne RobinsonsGileadand Steve MartinsThe Jerk.From his deathbed*, twenty-eight-year-old Oppen Porteran openhearted, bicycle-riding, binocular-toting, self-described slow absorberunspools into a cassette recorder his tale of self-determination, from village idiot to man of the world, for the benefit of his unborn son. Told in an astonishingly charming and wise voice, Oppens account traces forty days and nights navigating the fast-food joints, storefront churches, and home-office psychologists of the San Fernando Valley. Ping-ponging between his watchful, sharp-tongued aunt and an outlaw philosopher with the face of a newly hatched crocodile, Oppen finds himself constantly in the sights of people who believe that their way is the only way for him. Oppen Porter is an American original (Stewart ONan) for whom finding ones own way is both a delightful art and a painstaking science. Disarmingly funny and surreptitiously moving,Panorama Citymakes us see the world, and our place in it, with new eyes. *Not really