Chapter summaries

Chapter 1: My Father’s House

Sarfraz Manzoor’s autobiography Greetings from Bury Park begins with a chapter dedicated to his father, Mohammed Manzoor. Sarfraz recalls the time when he was twenty-three years old and unemployed, much to his parents’ disappointment. He lets his parents know about a future interview with writer Elizabeth Wurtzel, which his father did not live to see published. 

Sarfraz then focuses on his father’s life and his determination to protect his family from the difficulties he faced in Pakistan. After marrying Rasool Bibi, Mohammed immigrated to Britain and promised to return after a few years to collect his wife and his two children, Navela and Sohail. However, he visited Pakistan several times, and he worked in Britain for eleven years before being joined by his family definitively. In the meantime, Rasool Bibi had to raise her children on her own and deal with criticism coming from relatives who believed Mohammed found another woman in Britain. 

Mohammed worked at the Vauxhall car factory in Luton, and the family moved to Bury Park, one of Luton’s districts. Sarfraz recalls that his father arranged for his mother to work as a seamstress from home, with the help of her children. Sarfraz then talks about the family’s decision to move to Marsh Farm, a suburb of Luton, to be closer to the children’s school. As he thinks about his father’s hard work, Sarfraz admires his values and morality which made him constantly try to improve the family’s life. 

Sarfraz remembers that, when he was young, he rejected his father’s values and his traditional Pakistani attitude. He used to think only about the future and refused everything connected to his father, including his hair, which he changed and wore in rebellious dreadlocks in college. Sarfraz also discovered the music of Bruce Springsteen, which he felt described the tense relationship between him and his father. 

Mohammed’s death represents a dramatic moment for Sarfraz, who begins battling feelings of guilt and regret. As his first interview is published, Sarfraz is unable to share it with his father, who is in a coma and dies soon after. As he leaves for Manchester, Sarfraz feels guilty about leaving his siblings to deal with their grieving mother and does not know how to cope with his own grief. Inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s music, Sarfraz realizes that he resembles his father in many ways and that he wants to live in a way that would make his father proud. 

Chapter 2: The Ties That Bind

In this chapter, Sarfraz mainly focuses on the relationship between him and his siblings. He remembers that his o...