I was already intrigued by this book when it started getting great reviews, both from official sources and my friends, so I waitlisted myself for the audio. I love a memoir on audio, especially when read by a professional, which includes actors.
The beginning is spoiled in most of the reviews and in Molly's interviews, and it truly is the beginning (I was nearly crying when I was just 15 minutes in) so it's hard to avoid. And it's such an important event that colors the entire rest of her life in every way, that you can't gloss over it or avoid it. So, sorry! But when Molly was four, her father hit a light pole with their car, killing Molly's mother, baby sister Katie, and her cousin Fran. Molly and her older sister Mary were hurt, but not too badly (concussion, broken arm). Her father survived but was very badly injured (both legs nearly amputated, almost all his ribs broken, his teeth knocked out). He could only work part-time and walked with a limp and a cane for the rest of his life.
It's always astonishing to me when someone like Molly goes through something so incredibly traumatic and comes out not only pretty well-adjusted, all things considered, but cheerful. Optimistic, even. That's impressive. (Or delusional. But that doesn't seem to be the case here.)
So Jim raises Molly and Mary solo, and he's a little unconventional. He thinks it's hilarious when they trick people (at one point, goaded on by him, Molly and a friend sneak onto a plane from Cleveland to NYC! When she called from the city, he laughed instead of being mad! Although he wasn't crazy when they failed on sneaking on a plane back home and he had to buy them plane tickets back. He took the money out of Molly's babysitting money for years.) He has a drinking problem which at times is bad although at other times he's sober for a couple of years at a stretch. But he's the exact right kind of dad for a kid who wants to be an actor. He's super encouraging towards Molly's dreams. He never tells her she can't do it or she should get a safe job or anything conventional like that. And as we all know, she did eventually become a terrific success. Mostly on SNL but she's also in a lot more movies than you'd realize.
One thing I want to mention is that I've had an issue with books on audio read by the author which are memoirs featuring tragedy. Usually they're read in an emotionless robot-like tone removing all feelings and making the tragic part horrible. That is absolutely not the case here. You can hear the sadness and upset in Molly's voice when it's appropriate which I really appreciated. I'm sure it was very hard for her to read those parts out loud, but she did it the right way, and the audiobook is a millions time stronger for it. This was a mostly fun, entirely fascinating book that I wish was twice as long!
I borrowed this digital audiobook from my local library via Libby.
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