Except that Piggie's glasses could never start a fire, and here endeth the lesson (and the book, as far as I was concerned).
Coming of age book? The Bible's actually pretty good if you can stand it.
The Owl Service and Red Shift (obviously!) - books about love and fate, and whether you can escape them.
Another vote for Kurt Vonnegut Jr - but I'd add in some thing like 'Slapstick - or Lonesome No More' for the lighter relief, too. (I too use the words 'hey ho' to punctuate boredom, even now)
When the Wind Blows - to show him just how frightened we could be.
Two books from my youth which may or may not still be available - Paul Zindel's The Pigman, and Pardon Me You're Stepping On My Eyeball. Neither is great literature, but my memory of them is that Zindel does "alienated angsty teen" like noone else - apart from perhaps Alan Garner. I read Zindel before Garner, and the fact that I still read Garner, but not Zindel, may indicate their relative worth in my head.
Films? Oh! What a Lovely War.
I'll probably think of some more to add later.
