reading diary: part one (short summaries)

Prologue
November 30th

The scene in the prologue takes place at November 30th in the toilet of a motorway service station at Leicester Forest East. It´s shortly before Manny´s wedding and he escapes into the stations toilet to think about the marriage, his old man and the new live he would get. His two brothers Harry and Ranjit are waiting for him. Manny feels angry and upset but also determined.

Part One: Four years earlier

Chapter One

Manny just turned 13 and hates being called Manjit, because it is a girl´s name. He also feels like an outsider. In this chapter the characters are introduced and the parents are introduced as "odd" because his mum is like a stranger and his dad either works or is drunk. He hits Manny and is called a racist. And what even is worse, Manny´s brothers are turning into newer versions of him. Manny has to share a room with Harry so they are often in trouble. Although his family doesn´t sees education as important Manny gets high grades at school. His best made is Adrian and they are always together. They even go shoplifting together because they want to be rebels.


Chapter Two
May

This chapter takes place in May and Manny is in year 8 at school. His father works in a plastic factory and saves every penny. His mum´s nephew Ekbal is allowed to do what he wants; his dad is a doctor and the exact opposite of Manny´s dad. He sees education as important and studied himelf. So Ekbal (Eky) is very lucky in contrast to Manny who is far away from happy.
He writes a plan of his future life and gets again in trouble with his brother Harry who gets married so the family drives away except of Manny who stays at home and watches TV as a Liverpool FC fan. His dad invites him to come with his family for the next wedding but Manny doesn´t want so his dad gets angry again. Manny thinks about the horror of getting married in four years and realizes that it is a serious plan.


Chapter Three
July

Chapter three takes place in July in the summer break between year 8 and 9. The shock keeps on playing in Manny´s head so he spends more and more time out with his friend Ady to detract from what is going on in his head. Manny gets angry of Harry so he bothers him as he always does with him. When Manny is out with Ady he describes his and Ady´s multicultural England. Ady says that a girl named Sahra wants to go out with him so Manny is jealous but they meet Sahra and her girlfriend, Lisa, in town. Manny sees her for the first time but is sure he wants Lisa as a girlfriend now.


Chapter Four
August

It is August. Manny can´t get Lisa out of his mind and can´t wait for the day that he is old enough to leave home. He is out with Ady again, who stole some pencils and Manny mentions the friendship first deal. Ady always changes the accent of his language. They meet the girls again in a shopping center and talk a bit before they invite them for a drink. Manny is fascinated of Lisa.


Chapter Five
October

This chapter takes place in October and year 9 in school begins. Ady helps Manny to meet Lisa but Manny can´t ask her out because he has his parents in his mind. If he ever brings a girl home he´d be dead. Manny dreams of being adopted so his parents aren´t his real parents. Later Ady and he go to Sahra´s house and just talked until Manny leaves them alone. Ady and Sahra think that Manny and Lisa would be good together. After that Manny asks Ady out about what has happened. He gets home late so his father is angry again and he gets trouble with Harry, who destroys a cassette from Ady. Ranjit comes in and calms the situation.


Chapter Six
December

Lisa and Manny are having a coffee in an Italian bar in town in December. It is their tenth date now. Their conversation is all about books and Manny gets to know that she is a Liverpool fan, too. They talk about their parents and Manny tells her about his family situation and she holds his hand. Manny comes home late again and his old man is really upset as usual. Lisa changed his life and makes a difference. Two weeks later Ekbal´s family comes and Ekbal and Manny talk about the marriage again. He tells him that it is meant deadly serious, so Manny is in big trouble. The only way not to get married is to make himself as unsuitable as possible, he thinks.