Telling the story of one’s family is tough. It’s difficult to write, to consider how it might hurt, to work out how to tell a perceived truth and still get invited to Thanksgiving. Adding to that difficulty is any skeleton or damning character witness hidden away but necessary to the tale being told. When a father is a gambling addict and twice-convicted criminal, the story becomes even harder to tell. But still, Molly Brodak tells her family’s story in BANDIT, her account of growing up with a sociopathic criminal father, a mother who suffers from bipolar disorder, and a sister caught in the fray.

Molly Brodak is 13 when her father is incarcerated for pulling a string of bank jobs in Michigan. He was called the “Mario Brothers Bandit” for the gaudy fake mustache he wore during his heists. After a seven-year prison term --- he earned early release for good behavior --- Joseph Brodak rejoined his life. He bought a house with Molly’s older sister, returned to his job at GM, and picked back up his detrimental gambling addiction. Seven years after his release from prison, he robs another bank and goes back.

"Brodak has made an honest effort to understand why her father made the choices he did.... a memoir with a narrative through which the author is attempting to understand lives lived, choices made, and what it means to be the daughter of an incarcerated parent."

BANDIT is not simply a story of a father’s criminal history. It's about a girl and her family, the complicated relationships contained within it, and an inquiry into the sociology behind an addiction to gambling and the reasons why a man would choose to rob banks. Here, Brodak has made an honest effort to understand why her father made the choices he did. She begins by laying out the facts of his crimes; she wants to get that information out of the way. Then she digs into the carefully manipulated life he created with her mother, Nora, and their two girls.

Joseph was married when he met Nora. He still may have been married to his first wife when they wed after Molly’s older sister was born. He spends his days working in the automobile manufacturing plants of Detroit when it was a thriving city, and his nights in its casinos and bars, haunting the blackjack tables and placing bets on sporting events. Meanwhile, his marriage and family fall apart under the debilitating debt he’s accruing.

The narrative follows Molly’s life through a rocky childhood, rather solitary teenage years that see her bear witness to the incarceration of her father and a suicidal mother, and finally to adulthood, where she finishes college, earns a Master’s degree, and eventually is able to settle into a life far from Michigan and the troubles it harbors. With the passage of time, she cultivates a loving relationship with her sister, something that seems utterly impossible as they’re growing up. And while she finds little resolution as to why her father did the things he did, she does find a happiness she never thought possible as a lonely, obscure child.

Molly Brodak is a poet, and BANDIT is written in prose poetry --- beautifully crafted imagery and emotions but often convoluted semantics and metaphors that feel forced. She briefly tackles loaded subjects --- the state of the US prison system, mental health issues, what constitutes an addiction --- but only scratches the surface of such topics. It works though, to only briefly touch on such things, because this is not a sociological examination. It’s a memoir with a narrative through which the author is attempting to understand lives lived, choices made, and what it means to be the daughter of an incarcerated parent.