Offensichtlich ist er nicht der Hellste, steht aber eine gewisse Alltagsweisheit, die teilweise durchaus an Philosophie grenzt: „…… Es war ein ziemlicher Tiefpunkt. Trotz seiner Gutgläubigkeit erarbeitet er sich in seiner Erzählung durchaus Respekt. Dabei erinnert Oppen ein wenig an Forest Gump, nur dass sein Leben realistischer und weniger dramatisch ist. Er selbst bezeichnet sich „slow absorber“, jemand, der etwas langsamer tickt.
Okay, eine gewisse Naivität merkt man ihm gleich an, dem Oppen Porter, der von seinem Krankenhaus-Bett aus seinem ungeborenem Sohn seine Lebensgeschichte erzählt. Offensichtlich ist er nic Die Welt einmal mit anderen Augen sehen. Disarmingly funny and surreptitiously moving, Panorama City makes us see the world, and our place in it, with new eyes.ĭie Welt einmal mit anderen Augen sehen. Oppen Porter is "an American original" (Stewart O'Nan) for whom finding one's own way is both a delightful art and a painstaking science. Ping-ponging between his watchful and 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. Written in an astonishingly charming and wise voice, Oppen’s account traces forty days and nights navigating the fast food joints, storefront churches, and home-office psychologists of the San Fernando Valley. From his deathbed*, 28-year-old Oppen Porter-an open-hearted, bicycle-riding, binocular-toting, self-described "slow absorber"-unspools into a cassette recorder a tale of self-determination, from "village idiot" to "man of the world," With its blend of fool’s wisdom and deeply felt humanity, Panorama City is heir to Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and Steve Martin’s The Jerk.įrom his deathbed*, 28-year-old Oppen Porter-an open-hearted, bicycle-riding, binocular-toting, self-described "slow absorber"-unspools into a cassette recorder a tale of self-determination, from "village idiot" to "man of the world," for the benefit of his unborn son. With its blend of fool’s wisdom and deeply felt humanity, Panorama City is heir to Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and Steve Martin’s The Jerk.