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Small Fry
A review of

Small Fry

Lisa Brennan-JobsGrove • 2018

The Eyes of a Child

by David Meyer

Lisa Brennan-Jobs writes with candor, skill and remarkably little self-pity about her complex and contradictory relationship with her renowned father.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs was the daughter of Steve Jobs’ former high school sweetheart. When he lost a paternity suit in 1980, the court ordered him to pay $385 a month in child support. He increased it to $500 and signed the documents only days before his company, Apple, went public, making him suddenly worth $200 million.

Thus begins Brennan-Jobs’ tale of her complicated relationship with her father. From their first acquaintance until his death from cancer in 2011, Jobs struggled to show love for his first child. She wonders why he lied about being her father and refused to admit he named his first mass-market computer, the Lisa, after her. Brennan-Jobs never devolves into self-pity; instead she ponders bigger questions: how did her relationship with her father work out, exactly, and why did she need his love so much?


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