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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Mar 2010, 354 pages
Paperback:
Mar 2011, 368 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Elena Spagnolie
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Wholly original, The House of Tomorrow is the story of a young man's self-discovery, a dying woman's last wish, and a band of misfits trying desperately to be heard.
Sebastian Prendergast lives in a geodesic dome with his eccentric grandmother, who homeschooled him in the teachings of futurist philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller. But when his grandmother has a stroke, Sebastian is forced to leave the dome and make his own way in town.
Jared Whitcomb is a chain-smoking sixteen-year-old heart-transplant recipient who befriends Sebastian, and begins to teach him about all the things he has been missing, including grape soda, girls, and Sid Vicious. They form a punk band called The Rash, and it's clear that the upcoming Methodist Church talent show has never seen the likes of them. Wholly original, The House of Tomorrow is the story of a young man's self-discovery, a dying woman's last wish, and a band of misfits trying desperately to be heard.
1. Welcome to the Future
Every single human being is part of a grand
universal plan. That’s what my Nana always says. We’re not alive
just to lounge around and contemplate our umbilicus. We’re metaphysical
beings! Open us up, and there’s more rattling around in
there than just brain sacs and fatty tissue. We are full of imperceptible
essences. Invisible spectrums. Patterns. Ideas. We’re containers
of awesome phenomena! Which is why it’s important to live
right. You have to be attuned to what’s around you, and you have
to keep from clogging your receptors with crap. According to my
Nana, the universe is sending signals every day, and it’s up to us
whether or not we want to listen. We can either perk up our ears,
or walk around like dead piles of dermis. I always preferred the former.
Which is why I found myself up on top of the roof of our dome
on that fall Sunday when everything began.
I couldn’t tell you for certain that I&...
Peter Bognanni's The House of Tomorrow is a fresh and creative novel that I truly enjoyed reading... The plot of the story isn't particularly fast-paced or driving, and at times it feels slow, but [the novel] is more about the rich conversations people have while practicing musical instruments together, how sharing CDs can be a window into someone's soul and how shared situations create a deep bond between people even if they don't always treat each other right, just like Sid and Nancy...continued
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(Reviewed by Elena Spagnolie).
Elizabeth McCracken
The House of Tomorrow, as its title and premise promise, marries the visionary with the everyday, the whizbang with the domestic, and does it with beauty, humor, and love for each one of its flawed characters. Peter Bognanni remembers all the romance and awkwardness of teen life and teen music. His first novel is headlong, hilarious, heartbreaking. Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances
I adore this book, not only for its ability to love our ludicrous hearts, but also for the way it makes dividing questions about whether good literature comes from the heart or the mind seem like nonsense. Rob Sheffield, author of Love is a Mix Tape
Under the screaming rage of a Misfits or Ramones song, you can hear a heart beating, and that's where Peter Bognanni gets to work - his wild and tender book reveals how much a couple of scared boys can say to each other with a little hateful noise.
If you're not already familiar with the wildly eccentric personality of R. Buckminster Fuller when you read The House of Tomorrow, you might be tempted to think that he is a fictional character. However, Richard Buckminster Fuller was, indeed, very real. Born in 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts into the New England tradition of Transcendentalism (he was related to journalist and women's rights activist Margaret Fuller), "Bucky" grew up playing architect and was intrigued by structural design from a very young age.
In 1927, out of work and grieving over the death of his young daughter, Fuller was on the brink of committing suicide when he instead resolved to make his life "an experiment to find what a single individual can contribute to ...
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