Steve Jobs from the Perspective of his Daughter
In a previous post I wrote that I was in the middle of a lack of reading, not finding much to read that engaged me. Since then I've actually found a few great books that I liked a bunch. One of them was "The Penderwicks at Last," written by Jeanne Birdsall. It's the latest in a series of books about a family known as a family known as the Penderwicks, with this including a wedding between a couple of the main characters. It's a pretty engaging series and within the five books that have been written so far since 2005, fifteen years have gone by for the characters; Batty, one of the characters, was originally four in the first book, and in the latest novel is nineteen and in college.
The book that I got really involved in was "Small Fry," written by Lisa Brennan-Jobs. It's a memoir written by the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. I've read a fair amount about Steve Jobs and have seen films about his life, including the made-for-TV movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" and the excellent "Steve Jobs," whose screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin. So before even reading this book I was somewhat aware of Jobs eccentricities and oftentimes jerkish (to say the least) behavior.
There was one scene in particular that really stuck out for me. At one point when Lisa was a child (ten if I remember right) she, her birth mother, her father, and a cousin about her age named Sarah went out for dinner together. Steve Jobs was a vegan and was notorious for his strict dietary habits. Both he and Lisa's mother had vegan food, while Lisa herself had shrimp alfredo (knowing she could get away with a small amount of seafood without being talked down to). Sarah, unaware of Steve's dietary restrictions (and possibly not caring), says to the waiter, "I would like a big burger." As she's eating her dinner Steve Jobs says to her, a little girl who isn't even her daughter, "You disgust me," and continues to critique both her food choice and her so-called "squeaky voice." She was crying as she and the family exited the restaurant.
As I'm reading this in my head I'm thinking, "Who does that? What type of sick person does that to a child?" Then I realized that I've meet so many people, and even people whom were close to me, who have exhibited similar behaviors towards other people, including small children.
I'm glad that Lisa Brennan-Jobs wrote this book and was able to tell her story. I know that some people may roll their eyes at the notion of the daughter of a famous man writing a book about her life being affected by him; they may say, "Oh, she's just trying to cash in on her father's name." I feel that Lisa deserves to tell her story. Throughout her life there have been at least three movies made about the life of Steve Jobs (a couple of which include Lisa being portrayed by actresses), plus the best-selling memoir written by Walter Issaacson. Her own aunt, the writer Mona Simpson, wrote a novel titled "A Regular Guy," in which she borrowed a lot from the life of Lisa and her father. And Lisa Brennan-Jobs is an excellent writer in her own right; she's written essays for several magazines and graduated with a Bachelor's in English from Harvard. If anyone deserves to tell this story, it's her.
The book that I got really involved in was "Small Fry," written by Lisa Brennan-Jobs. It's a memoir written by the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. I've read a fair amount about Steve Jobs and have seen films about his life, including the made-for-TV movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" and the excellent "Steve Jobs," whose screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin. So before even reading this book I was somewhat aware of Jobs eccentricities and oftentimes jerkish (to say the least) behavior.
There was one scene in particular that really stuck out for me. At one point when Lisa was a child (ten if I remember right) she, her birth mother, her father, and a cousin about her age named Sarah went out for dinner together. Steve Jobs was a vegan and was notorious for his strict dietary habits. Both he and Lisa's mother had vegan food, while Lisa herself had shrimp alfredo (knowing she could get away with a small amount of seafood without being talked down to). Sarah, unaware of Steve's dietary restrictions (and possibly not caring), says to the waiter, "I would like a big burger." As she's eating her dinner Steve Jobs says to her, a little girl who isn't even her daughter, "You disgust me," and continues to critique both her food choice and her so-called "squeaky voice." She was crying as she and the family exited the restaurant.
As I'm reading this in my head I'm thinking, "Who does that? What type of sick person does that to a child?" Then I realized that I've meet so many people, and even people whom were close to me, who have exhibited similar behaviors towards other people, including small children.
I'm glad that Lisa Brennan-Jobs wrote this book and was able to tell her story. I know that some people may roll their eyes at the notion of the daughter of a famous man writing a book about her life being affected by him; they may say, "Oh, she's just trying to cash in on her father's name." I feel that Lisa deserves to tell her story. Throughout her life there have been at least three movies made about the life of Steve Jobs (a couple of which include Lisa being portrayed by actresses), plus the best-selling memoir written by Walter Issaacson. Her own aunt, the writer Mona Simpson, wrote a novel titled "A Regular Guy," in which she borrowed a lot from the life of Lisa and her father. And Lisa Brennan-Jobs is an excellent writer in her own right; she's written essays for several magazines and graduated with a Bachelor's in English from Harvard. If anyone deserves to tell this story, it's her.
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