Small Fry Book Review

Book title: Small Fry

Author: Lisa Brennan-Jobs

Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ memoir, Small Fry, introduces to the world the truth about technology legend and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, as she details their relationship from child to adulthood. Brennan-Jobs, recounting her double life split between the homes of her mother and father, brings to light the fact that regardless of Steve’s reputation as an internationally recognized genius, he lacked the necessary intelligence, or rather what appears to most as common sense, to appropriately pursue fatherhood.

Rarely present in Lisa’s early life, Steve later emerges as a more “involved” fatherly figure, although simultaneously unpredictable, critical, and cold in his attitude toward Lisa. As her relationship with her mother is strained during the beginning of high school, Steve demands Lisa move in with him, wife Laurene, and son Reed. Lisa is met with a cold bedroom in which Steve refuses to fix the heating, rejection from family photos, and Steve’s insistence that his first computer, the Lisa, has no relation to his daughter.

Brennan-Jobs masterfully depicts her life between her parents and the psychological repercussions evident into adulthood, while the memoir unfolds much like a puzzle, in which the reader takes on the same confused role as a young Lisa attempting to understand Steve’s erratic behavior and actions. Lisa’s vivid memory allows for an unparalleled openness regarding Steve’s distinct idiosyncrasies, and a level of truth not often present in memoirs today.

Verdict: A disturbing, passionate, and mesmerizing recounting, Small Fry, should be read by any and all, Apple fanatic or not, as an insightful analysis into the mind of Steve Jobs through the eyes of his first born daughter.

Reviewed by: Caroline Rispoli'20