Small Fry; Lisa's Story

“... It was with sadness that we read her book, which differs dramatically from our memories of those times.” That is a joint statement given by Lauren Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’ wife and his sister, Mona Simpson regarding Lisa Brennan Jobs’ memoir of Steve Jobs.

Lisa is the author of “Small fry.” Apart from being Steve Jobs’ daughter, she is a well-respected journalist. Lisa’s memoir has caused a stir concerning Steve Jobs’ character.

In her book she presented Steve Jobs as a power-hungry figure; he was powerful at work yet he wanted more at home and got it by withholding money, restricting conversations and affection.

Steve Jobs is popularly known to be the pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 80s. He is a co-founder of Apple Inc; a multinational technology company that designs, develops and sells electronics, computer software, and online services.

In Small Fry, he appeared to be a selfish man capable of being cruel to those closest to him.  

In 1980, Jobs was involved in a legal battle with Chrisann Brennan, Lisa’s mother denying he was Lisa’s biological father. A DNA test confirmed he was indeed her father and the court ordered him to pay her $385 per month. He paid up for years but still insisted he wasn’t her father. When Apple went public and became a multimillion company, he increased the pay to $500.

Jobs didn’t start a relationship with Lisa until she was eight; then he had her birth certificate changed from Lisa Brennan to Lisa Brenna Jobs and she moved to his mansion in Palo Alto.

Lisa hoped that moving in with him would mean getting closer to her father and know him better. She did know him better but didn’t get closer. Jobs made himself known as a childish, self-absorbed and emotionally unavailable father. Lisa recalled he would say “nope, sorry” when she asked him to start saying goodnight to her before she goes to bed.

He was also temperamental. Once when Sarah, Lisa’s cousin ordered a hamburger for dinner, he lost his cool and said, “you’re eating shit, I don’t want to spend another moment of my life with you.”

Some have excused Jobs’ behavior due to his early abandonment issue. He was deserted by his birth mother and given up for adoption. His adoptive mother admitted to his 17year old girlfriend she regretted taking up Jobs because he was troublesome until he was two. 
A social user said, “this early abandonment has left an enormous wound in him”, else why he “withheld money and love from his daughter just as it was withheld from him.” 

He also became mean and controlling. When Lisa stayed behind after school for extracurriculars, he felt aggrieved at her absence. 
“If you want to be part of this family, you need to put in the time,” he would tell her and then ignore her for days. 
Lisa also recounted how he would grope Laurene in front of her, moaning theatrically. When Lisa got up to leave on one such occasion, he stopped her. “Hey Lis, stay here. We’re having a family moment.”

One social user said it is no surprise Jobs is a “manipulative, egotistical sociopath.”

One would think that’s as cruel as it gets but not according to Chrisann Brennan. She said, Lisa “didn’t go into how bad it really was” in the book. She told The New York Times, “it was horrendous for me to read” but confirmed Lisa “got it right”.

Her memoir is a one-sided account, that has been one that has been backed by her mother however rejected by her stepmother and her aunt, Mona Simpson.

Lisa is not a saint either. She admitted she is erratically cruel to her mother, she used to steal $100 bills from Jobs’ bedroom as a teenager and she spontaneously stole trinkets from Jobs’ house when he laid in his deathbed. In his final days, he asked her if she is going to write about him. “No,” she told him.  

Lisa was made to believe Apple Lisa was a coincidence with her name. Jobs told her project Lisa was an acronym for "Locally Integrated Software Architecture.” When U2’s Bono asked the question in his villa, Jobs was forced to tell the truth.

Lisa “felt a new power that pulled [her] chest up.” At the time, she thanked Bono for getting her father to confess and concluded famous people “needed other famous people around to release their secrets.”

"Steve loved Lisa, and he regretted that he was not the father he should have been during her early childhood. It was a great comfort to Steve to have Lisa home with all of us during the last days of his life, and we are all grateful for the years we spent together as a family." - Laurene Powell