Sarfraz Manzoor

Reviewed by Arifa Akbar

In this memoir, Sarfraz Manzoor traces his journey from Lahore, where he was born, to Bury Park in Luton, where his family emigrated when he was three, to his present existence as a successful writer and broadcaster in London. Manzoor’s autobiography of a first-generation British Pakistani also incorporates a devotional tribute to the music of Bruce Springsteen, with whom he becomes obsessed at 16.

His reflections on his childhood in Luton run parallel with his examination of his love of Springsteen, and both aspects feed into his search for belonging. Set against a politically turbulent backdrop that takes us from Thatcher’s Britain to the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and finally 7 July 2005, Manzoor travels inside himself in his search for identity, as well as commenting on how political changes affect his world.

After 11 September, he fears travelling to America to a Springsteen concert and, after 7 July, he condemns the London bombers who used Luton as a starting-point for their attacks. While the book is about many things - the impact of multi-culturalism, a coming-of-age story and a Nick Hornby-style documentation of musical obsession - it is Manzoor’s relationship with his father, a factory worker who dies when he is 23, that lies at its heart. He recounts his father’s departure from Pakistan to Britain, 11 years prior to his family’s eventual emigration to join him, and goes on to describe his discordant relationship with the man who was slow to praise his children. The rest of the book seems to be both a coming-to-terms with his grief and an appreciation of his father’s legacy.

These darker themes are balanced by Manzoor’s quirky anecdotal detail and his brilliant humour, with descriptions of his dreadlocked rebellion and the excruciating response it elicits from his parents, or the erotic experience of finding abandoned pages of pornographic magazines in the shrubbery as a teenager.

His introduction to Springsteen is pivotal to his inner growth. The first time he listens to Springsteen, he sees his own existential search reflected in the lyrics. “I realised this was like nothing I had heard before. In his music, I found a new way to understand my relationship with my father”. Springsteen also represents the dream of belonging, not to be different or defined purely by race or religion. After 11 September, he realises he cannot escape the collective aspect of cultural identity and says mournfully: “I wanted to be Muslim like Philip Roth was a Jew or Bruce Springsteen was Catholic.”

Manzoor’s admiration sometimes verges on a teenage crush. He and his best friend, both Asians in Luton, attempt to “emulate” Springsteen’s all-American look. Later, they go to sell books in New Jersey just so they can be in Springsteen’s home town, and Manzoor takes a job at a pizza parlour called Backstreets (the name of a Springsteen song) “just to get the T-shirt”. As a musical tribute, this offers an interesting insight into the psyche of an avid fan but it is as a childhood memoir - as painful in parts as it is endearing - that Manzoor’s book really comes to life.