Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs reviewed

Of all the memoirs you could pick up, Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ revelatory Small Fry bursts with clarity, depth, and beauty. The book is anything but a tell-all exposé by an author wanting to cash in. With remarkable honesty and sensitivity, Lisa Brennan-Jobs has penned a literary masterpiece.

Unlike other autobiographies, Small Fry reads like a novel. The author successfully placed herself at the center of a story most people will read because of her father: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Beautiful writing and vivid descriptions make Small Fry a must-read. This article takes a closer look at the book and the author.

Who is Lisa Brennan-Jobs?

Lisa Brennan-Jobs is the daughter of IT genius and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, and his high school girlfriend, artist Chrisann Brennan. While living together in Cupertino, California, Chrisann became pregnant. But Jobs refused to accept he was the father, which led Chrisann to end the relationship and move out. Lisa was born in a commune, and although close by, Jobs continued to deny his paternity.

Struggling to make ends meet, Chrisann supported herself and Lisa with waitressing jobs while initiating legal proceedings against Jobs to secure child-support payments. A DNA test confirmed Jobs’ paternity which he continued to refute publicly until the late 1980s.

During high school, Lisa moved in with Jobs and her stepmother, Laurene Powell. However, she was forbidden from seeing her birth mother and endured the strict and strange rules her father set. Despite the reconciliation, the relationship remained difficult. Powell and Lisa’s stepsiblings accepted her into the family fold but refuted Jobs’ portrayal in Small Fry.

Steve Jobs’ half-sister Mona Simpson played a pivotal role in the family reconciliation with Lisa. In Simpson’s book about Steve Jobs, A Regular Guy, Lisa features as a central character.

Brennan-Jobs penned what Vogue called “a masterly Silicon Valley gothic” in part to set the story straight. She was critical of her portrayal in Walter Isaacson’s authorized Steve Jobs biography.

Since the publication of Small Fry, many details have emerged through her interviews and conversations with renowned people like Phillip Lopate and U2 frontman Bono.

Today, she lives in New York with her family and writes for high-profile publications, including Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The Oprah Magazine.

Small Fry: A Memoir – a book review

Small Fry is an entrancing description of a father-daughter relationship where cruelty meets love and forgiveness, and a little girl once lost desperately wants the father she has never had. Navigating life between her mother, Chrisann Brennan’s bohemian homestead, and her uber-successful father’s rise to astronomical wealth, Lisa Brennan-Jobs emerges as a fabulous writer who has found peace. Speaking to the New York Times a few weeks before the book’s publication, she said:

“You get your inheritance delivered in a lump of coal or whatever in a sort of awful package.

“And you have to take a lot of time to turn the awful package on its head, and it reveals something kind of glorious, and then you’re set free.”

It’s not surprising that Small Fry has made all the most famous bestseller lists, including Publishers Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, GQ, San Francisco Chronicle, and British Vogue.

The book’s Amazon page features many stellar book reviews, with the New Yorker calling it “a book of no small literary skill” and the New York Times book review describing it as “beautiful, literary, and devastating.” Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ autobiography is “an exquisitely rendered story of family,” according to Kirkus.

Small Fry: A Memoir is about a California childhood in the 80s as told by a daughter longing to tell her own story and take it out of her famous father’s hands. Brennan-Jobs’ narrative is never soppy or self-pitying. Rather, it’s the heartbreaking story of a little girl vying for the attention of her estranged parents while reeling from a deep sense of rejection.

For readers, the book has everything a page-turner needs: rawness, honesty, drama, and poignant descriptions of people – made all the more real by the fact that this is a memoir.

Find books about Steve Jobs and Apple on Speechify Audiobooks

Speechify Audiobooks features some of the best books about Steve Jobs and Apple, including Small Fry, Steve Jobs’ authorized biography by Isaacson, Adam Lahinsky’s Inside Apple, or Mona Simpson’s My Hollywood. For more on the epic rise of computer technology, you can also check out Adam Fisher’s Valley of Genius.

If you’re looking for a booklist for your book club, you’ll have no issue finding the best in fiction and non-fiction on Speechify. The impeccable narration of Speechify Audiobooks also makes the stories mesmerizing.

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FAQ

Why did Steve Jobs abandon his daughter?

Steve Jobs initially refused to accept that he was Lisa’s father.

Did Steve Jobs marry Lisa’s mother?

No, Steve Jobs married Laurene Powell in 1991 and had three children.

How many pages is Small Fry?

Small Fry is 400 pages in length.

Why did Lisa Brennan-Jobs write Small Fry?

Brennan-Jobs wrote the book to come to terms with her often painful upbringing and to tell her side of the story. Moreover, she told the paper how writing about overcoming trauma can empower readers.

What is the main theme of Small Fry?

Small Fry is a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of 1980s California.

How old was Lisa when she and her father first met?

From the age of eight, Lisa spent every Wednesday night at her father’s house.

What year did Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ father die?

Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer in 2011.

What is the author’s profession?

Lisa Brennan-Jobs is a writer.