Small Fry

Lisa Brennan-Jobs, daughter of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and artist Chrisann Brennan, was born when her (unmarried) parents were just 23 years old. Jobs publicly denied his paternity until a DNA test proved otherwise. When Lisa was two, her mother sued Jobs for child support and, after months of resisting, he hurriedly agreed to pay $500 a month. Four days later, Apple stock went public and Jobs was worth $200 million. Steve Jobs may have been many things, but paternal wasn't one of them. In fact, he's portrayed as thoughtless, self-absorbed, immature and withholding. "There was a thin line between civility and cruelty in him," Brennan-Jobs writes. But Small Fry is no Mommie Dearest hatchet job. This heartfelt, emotional and exceedingly well-written coming-of-age memoir is a warts-and-all portrait, laced with resilience and healing.
 
Life with her mother was often hardscrabble and rootless--they moved 13 times by the time Lisa was seven. While Jobs and Brennan never married, they were always entwined in each other's lives. When Lisa was 13, her father wed and started a family. His possessive nature wanted Lisa under his (aloof) roof. Maneuvering this shaky reunion was Job's newly discovered biological sister, author Mona Simpson--who later wrote the novel A Regular Guy about a Silicon Valley tycoon's distant relationship with his born-out-of-wedlock daughter. 
 
Lisa and her college drop-out father became estranged when she went off to college against his wishes. Jobs's 2003 pancreatic cancer diagnosis finally brought a reconciliation, before his death in 2011. Brennan-Jobs is an outstanding storyteller, and her empowering tale of overcoming dysfunctional family relationships with haunt readers. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant
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