Book ~ "Hello, Molly! A Memoir" (2022) Molly Shannon

From Goodreads ~ At age four, Molly Shannon's world was shattered when she lost her mother, baby sister and cousin in a car accident with her father at the wheel. Held together by her tender and complicated relationship with her grieving father, Molly was raised in a permissive household where her gift for improvising and role-playing blossomed alongside the fearlessness that would lead her to become a celebrated actress.

From there, Molly ventured into the wider world of New York and Los Angeles show business, where she created her own opportunities and developed her daring and empathetic comedy. Filled with behind-the-scenes stories involving everyone from Whitney Houston to Adam Sandler to Monica Lewinsky, many told for the first time here, "Hello, Molly!" spans Molly's time on "Saturday Night Live" - where she starred alongside Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Cheri Oteri, Tracy Morgan and Jimmy Fallon, among many others. 

At the same time, it explores with humor and candor her struggle to come to terms with the legacy of her father, a man who both fostered her gifts and drive and was left with the impossible task of raising his kids alone after the loss of her mother.

Molly Shannon is an actress and comedian whose career has spanned movies and TV.  I recently saw her in the series, I Love That For You, which I liked.

Molly was born and raised in Ohio, the middle daughter of three ... her mother was a teacher and her father was a sales manager.  When she was four, she, her family and her cousin were driving home from her aunt's house with her father driving (after he'd been drinking) when they got in an accident ... her mother, younger sister and cousin were killed.  With her father grieving with the loss of his wife and daughter and carrying around the guilt of the accident, she and her older sister, Mary, were raised in non-traditional fashion.  Her father ran hot and cold ... he was either very easy going or would get into fits of rage ... Molly and Mary learned to gauge his moods and react accordingly.

Molly became interested in acting and had dreams of being a dramatic actress.  After university, she moved to LA and worked hard at becoming known, while working in restaurants, etc. to survive.  She was told she had a knack for comedy and that seemed to be her calling and she followed it.  After a lot of hustling and hard work, she made it!

I've liked what I've seen Molly in, though I haven't really watched Saturday Night Live since the Belushi/Ackroyd years (I find the comedy on the show hit and miss).  I liked the writing style of this book and Molly seems likable ... I think she wrote with honesty and it probably helped her deal with the loss of her mother and sister at such a young age and understand her father's behaviour over the years.  I like reading bios/autobios and Molly's is interesting, not only with how hard she worked to make her dreams come true (while being true to herself) but also dealing with all the grief from the past.