Audiobook7 hours
Bandit: A Daughter's Memoir
Written by Molly Brodak
Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
In the summer of 1994, when Molly Brodak was thirteen years old, her father robbed eleven banks, until the police finally caught up with him while he was sitting at a bar drinking beer, a bag of stolen money plainly visible in the backseat of his parked car. Dubbed the "Mario Brothers Bandit" by the FBI, he served seven years in prison and was released, only to rob another bank several years later and end up back behind bars.
In her powerful, provocative debut memoir, Bandit, Molly Brodak recounts her childhood and attempts to make sense of her complicated relationship with her father, a man she only half knew. At some angles he was a normal father: there was a job at the GM factory, a house with a yard, birthday treats for Molly and her sister. But there were darker glimmers, too-another wife he never mentioned to her mother, late-night rages directed at the TV, the red Corvette that suddenly appeared in the driveway, a gift for her sister. In Bandit, Brodak unearths and reckons with her childhood memories and the fracturing impact her father had on their family-and in the process attempts to make peace with the parts of herself that she inherited from this bewildering, beguiling man.
In her powerful, provocative debut memoir, Bandit, Molly Brodak recounts her childhood and attempts to make sense of her complicated relationship with her father, a man she only half knew. At some angles he was a normal father: there was a job at the GM factory, a house with a yard, birthday treats for Molly and her sister. But there were darker glimmers, too-another wife he never mentioned to her mother, late-night rages directed at the TV, the red Corvette that suddenly appeared in the driveway, a gift for her sister. In Bandit, Brodak unearths and reckons with her childhood memories and the fracturing impact her father had on their family-and in the process attempts to make peace with the parts of herself that she inherited from this bewildering, beguiling man.
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Reviews for Bandit
Rating: 3.891304282608696 out of 5 stars
4/5
23 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imagine your father being a slick-talking, manipulating, gambling, bank-robber....That is what this book is about, how Molly got through her childhood knowing that something was 'wrong", that her father could lie to everyone straight-faced & then smile afterwards....It describes growing up, her parents relationship, her relationship (or lack-thereof) with her sister & her parents.It was very interesting and a highly compelling read that I could not put down except to finally sleep @ 2:00 am.Other than the bank-robbing, she described my sibling to a T.Only two chapters towards the end gave me problems, where she wrote to explain his predilection for questionable actions. Maybe she was just attempting to put it all into writing for herself to better understand.Her writing is lyrical & hypnotizing at the same time honest and poignant.... All in all, very well written.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sad to just now be discovering Brodak's work posthumously and also that her poetry is out of print. This memoir was heartbreaking on many levels.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A very hearfelt poetic account of a rocky, damaged father/daughter relationship. I sometimes get very tired of reading yet another memoir of a disfunctional family but I had heard the author interviewed on MPR and was curious about the book. A title to be appreciated by a reader who knows the wild ride that is addictive behavior. Pretty rambley at the end, read quickly through the first 2/3rds. No conclusions here, to happy endings, the road goes on.