Buckminster Fuller and Sid Vicious!

Peter Bognanni's novel The House of Tomorrow is delightful! Sebastian, a home-schooled teen kept from society by his reclusive grandmother Nina, and Jared, an irreverent, rude but ultimately lovable heart transplant recipient, become unlikely friends. In a way they are 21st century's versions of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. Sebastian's naivete is an excellent foil for Jared's sarcasm and vice versa as both boys negotiate their way through trying events. Sebastian spends a fair amount of time measuring the wisdom of Buckminster Fuller, thanks to Nina's indoctrination, against his real world experience -- specifically his exposure to Sid Vicious and punk rock, thanks to Jared. Along the way, the boys form a punk band -- The Rash -- and have their eyes set on a talent competition at (ready for further ironic structure?) the local Methodist Church.

Despite the outlandishly disparate elements involved, Bognanni deftly handles the humor and what might have been childish and overbearing in less able hands, becomes pitch-perfect timing and delivery. The author never subsumes the serious elements of his story for the humor -- nor the other way round. The story is reminiscent of Frank Portman's King Dork, Mark Haddon's The  Curious Incident of the Dog at Night, Francisco X. Stork's Marcelo in the Real World and Matt Ruff's Set This House in Order -- depending what page you're on. Not that it matters much -- there isn't a bad one in the book.