{"id":1033,"date":"2012-02-14T16:06:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T00:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/?page_id=1033"},"modified":"2021-02-09T23:55:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T07:55:58","slug":"panorama-city-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/panorama-city-page\/","title":{"rendered":"Panorama City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pc_paperback_cover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Panorama City<\/em>, A Novel<\/strong><\/p>\n

From his deathbed*, twenty-eight-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.<\/p>\n

Written in an astonishingly charming and wise voice, Oppen\u2019s 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 and sharp-tongued aunt and an outlaw philosopher with the face \u201cof a newly hatched crocodile,\u201d Oppen finds himself constantly in the sights of people who believe that their way is the only way for him.<\/p>\n

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. Disarmingly funny and surreptitiously moving, Panorama City makes us see the world, and our place in it, with new eyes.<\/p>\n

* Not really.<\/em><\/p>\n

***New York Times<\/em> Editors’ Choice***
\n***San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> Best of 2012***
\n***Los Angeles Times<\/em> Bestseller***
\n***SCIBA Book of the Year 2013 Finalist***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a book you will hold in your head all day long, a book you will look forward to when you get home from work, a book you will still be savoring as you drift into sleep. Panorama City is often very funny. It is filled with joy and wonder, and a sort of goodness you had stopped believing might be even possible. Antoine Wilson\u2019s sentences are like diamond necklaces but his greatest treasure is his human heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Carey<\/strong>, author of Parrot and Olivier in America<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis funny and wise novel reminds one that the best fiction often treads the subtle line between tragedy and comedy. With ears keenly tuned to the music of language, and a limpid mind slyly hidden behind a persistent soliloquist, Antoine Wilson has written an intricate novel that makes us laugh and cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yiyun Li<\/strong>, author of Gold Boy, Emerald Girl<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGod bless Oppen Porter! His innocence and lack of pretense are our good fortune and our delight. Under his observation, our follies and schemes and manias go up in the brightest, funniest, heartrending flames. This is precisely (and artfully) because he does not judge them. Panorama City is charming and absurd, very funny and, best of all, humane through and through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Harding<\/strong>, author of Tinkers<\/em><\/p>\n

“Antoine Wilson draws us in to the weird, wonderful world of Oppen Porter, whose advice and lessons are jarringly original, funny, and moving.”<\/p>\n

Steve Hely<\/strong>, author of How I Became a Famous Novelist<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOppen Porter is an American original, an innocent who believes he’s bursting with wisdom. The funniest thing is that, despite himself, he actually is. Though it takes place in down-at-heel Panorama City with its crappy burger franchises and abandoned shopping carts, The World According to Oppen is full of wonders and mysteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart O\u2019Nan<\/strong>, author of Emily, Alone<\/em><\/p>\n

“\u201cCharming and oddball…A bracingly humane story whose narrator\u2019s wisdom and forbearance make you see the world afresh…A delightful performance, a winning and warm story whose success can be credited to Wilson\u2019s canny and often piercing use of Oppen\u2019s sensibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Ross<\/strong>, New York Times Book Review<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cClever and wisely funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elissa Schappell<\/strong>, Vanity Fair<\/em><\/p>\n

“A gift . . . An astonishing narrative that offers the pleasures of irony without the sting . . . Nowhere in [Oppen’s] purview is there blame or regret. He travels from innocence to experience without falling into disillusionment. The great triumph of the book is that Oppen matures without spoiling. He comes to affirm the integrity of his innocence, which is its own wisdom.”<\/p>\n

Amy Parker<\/strong>, Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em><\/p>\n

“A crisp comic novel…This isn’t, by heritage, a California book….Panorama City’s spent quality, its ruminative room, recalls some of the best of the mid-century South, New Orleans specifically, The Moviegoer and A Confederacy of Dunces, particularly. Those books never mistook time spent seeing through a cracked idea for a loss of urgency. Their absurdism was a claim on the page, a strong-arm of a story from the concluders…Wilson’s [novel] is a trot and a treat.”<\/p>\n

Theo Schell-Lambert<\/strong>, San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/p>\n

“In his second novel, Antoine Wilson brings much comedic grace and a sure feel for Southern California. In spots, Panorama City is laugh-aloud funny, building toward a slapstick climax that the Marx Brothers might have relished . . . Wilson has said his aphoristic, funny novel is meant to make a case for direct observation over ideology. It does. It is also worth cheering for taking a route rare in serious contemporary fiction: finding a way to a happy ending.”<\/p>\n

Cleveland Plain Dealer<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs enjoyable a comic novel as I have read all year, a coming of age story that vividly captures the modern world through innocent eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Largehearted Boy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIdiosyncratic\u2026Charming\u2026Indelible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Mak<\/strong>, Flavorwire<\/em><\/p>\n

“Fresh and flawlessly crafted as well as charmingly genuine.”<\/p>\n

Publisher’s Weekly<\/em> (STARRED REVIEW<\/strong>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panorama City, A Novel From his deathbed*, twenty-eight-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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1033","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1XK5s-gF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1036,"url":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/panorama-city-page\/panorama-city-a-description\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":0},"title":"Panorama City, a description","date":"February 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Panorama City, A Novel From his deathbed*, twenty-eight-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. Written in an astonishingly charming and wise voice, Oppen\u2019s account traces\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1326,"url":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/panorama-city-page\/panorama-city-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":1},"title":"Panorama City Reviews","date":"July 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Panorama City ***New York Times Editors' Choice*** ***San Francisco Chronicle Best of 2012*** ***Los Angeles Times Bestseller*** ***SCIBA Book of the Year 2013 Finalist*** \u201cThis is a book you will hold in your head all day long, a book you will look forward to when you get home from work,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1592,"url":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/panorama-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":2},"title":"Panorama City","date":"July 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Test.\"","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":919,"url":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/other-projects\/shopping-carts-of-panorama-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":3},"title":"Shopping Carts of Panorama City","date":"June 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":700,"url":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/about\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":4},"title":"About","date":"August 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"[author photo] [unretouched author photo] My full name is Antoine Leonide Thomas Wilson. I was born in Montreal, in 1971. I grew up for the most part in Southern California, with spells in Central California and Saudi Arabia. Attended Santa Monica High School, UCLA, and the University of Iowa Writers'\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":5},"title":"Other Writing","date":"August 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Short Fiction \"In the Bank.\" included in The Silver Waves of Summer, David Olsen, ed., Kelp Books, 2021. \"Panorama City.\" A Public Space, issue #12, 2011. *Special Mention, Pushcart Prizes XXXVII* \"Everyone Else.\" The Paris Review, issue #171, fall 2004. *Special Mention, Pushcart Prizes XXX* *National Magazine Award Finalist* \"Alva\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1033\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antoinewilson.com\/wotwhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}