Lisa Brennan-Jobs Shares Memories of Steve Jobs in New 'Small Fry' Memoir Excerpt

[MacRumors]

Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Steve Jobs' oldest daughter, is releasing a memoir called "Small Fry" next month, and ahead of the book's release, Vanity Fair has published an excerpt where Lisa-Brennan Jobs shares details on her troubled relationship with her father, his last days, and her early life.

Lisa was born in 1978 to Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan, and as is well known, Jobs initially denied that he was her father. He had nothing to do with her until she was two, a story she tells interspersed with facts about the Lisa computer he built. After being forced to take a paternity test and provide child support for Lisa, she finally met him, detailing their first meeting in Menlo Park, California.

Steve Jobs and Lisa Brennan-Jobs​

"You know who I am?" he asked. He flipped his hair out of his eyes.

I was three years old; I didn't.

"I'm your father." ("Like he was Darth Vader," my mother said later, when she told me the story.)

"I'm one of the most important people you will ever know," he said.

Jobs visited Brennan-Jobs more frequently after that, for rollerskating trips, rides in his Porsche, dinners, and hot tub excursions, but the two still had relationship issues. At one point, Brennan-Jobs said that she asked Jobs for his Porsche after hearing a myth that he replaced it whenever it got a scratch, and she received a callous reply.

"You're not getting anything," he said. "You understand? Nothing. You're getting nothing." Did he mean about the car, something else, bigger? I didn't know. His voice hurt--sharp, in my chest.

In another section of the excerpt, Brennan-Jobs explains how the fact that she thought the Lisa computer was named after her made her feel closer to Jobs, but at one point, she asked whether it was truly named after her. "Nope," said Jobs. He later changed his mind when Bono asked at an afternoon lunch Lisa Brennan-Jobs was at.

Then Bono asked, "So, was the Lisa computer named after her?"

There was a pause. I braced myself--prepared for his answer.

My father hesitated, looked down at his plate for a long moment, and then back at Bono. "Yeah, it was," he said.

I sat up in my chair.

"I thought so," Bono said.

"Yup," my father said.

I studied my father's face. What had changed? Why had he admitted it now, after all these years? Of course it was named after me, I thought then. His lie seemed preposterous now. I felt a new power that pulled my chest up.

The rest of the excerpt, available over at Vanity Fair, focuses on Jobs' final months before he passed away, and it is well worth reading for anyone who is interested in intimate details about Steve Jobs' life.

Brennan's book can be pre-ordered from Amazon for $24.70, with a release set for September 4.

Article Link: Lisa Brennan-Jobs Shares Memories of Steve Jobs in New 'Small Fry' Memoir Excerpt

 

[2010mini]

for the life of me, i still can't understand people who deny the existence of their child.

 

[needfx]

guess she doesn't want her father taxing her book posthumously

 

[newyorksole]

It sucks we won’t ever know what Apple and the tech industry would be like if Steve were still alive.

 

[keysofanxiety]

It sucks we won’t ever know what Apple and the tech industry would be like if Steve were still alive.

Probably pretty similar, except Apple wouldn't have agreed a settlement with Samsung or anything Android.

 

[RedGala]

I find it very ironic that someone who was left by his biological parents and put up for adoption repeated the damage to his child in a way. Steve may have been a great entrepreneur and visionary, but hurting one's family members at a crucial age – especially when he was wealthy – is no small thing.

 

[bladerunner2000]

In every recall, Steve Jobs is almost always described as a giant d-bag. Could it be.... TRUE?

Probably. But most of us knew that already anyway.

 

[DrJohnnyN]

Cute picture of the two.

 

[MacDawg]

It sucks we won’t ever know what Apple and the tech industry would be like if Steve were still alive.

That's what you got from reading this excerpt?

 

[danistyping]

Steve Jobs was kind of a d bag...are we surprised? Don't conflate financial success with being a good person, or any other kind of success in any other area of ones life.

 

[duervo]

I find it very ironic that someone who was left by his biological parents and put up for adoption repeated the damage to his child in a way. Steve may have been a great entrepreneur and visionary, but hurting one's family members at a crucial age – especially when he was wealthy – is no small thing.

It’s just as tragic, regardless of wealth. Children at that age have no concept of money, just that their “mommy” or “daddy” don’t want to be with them. It speaks to a certain degree of pure selfishness on the part of the absent parent, and little else.

 

[tigres]

Fatherhood, is in all sense, the most important job in a mans existence.

Steve. you Did that wrong.

 

[newyorksole]

Probably pretty similar, except Apple wouldn't have agreed a settlement with Samsung or anything Android.

I honestly do think it would be pretty similar. Yet the people on forums loveeee to say otherwise. Mac Mini would still be a stepchild and iPhone X would still be $999 with the same hardware.
[doublepost=1533164145][/doublepost]

That's what you got from reading this excerpt?

Lol yeah I have nothing to say about his daughter. I mean, I feel bad that she had such a strained relationship with him, but I didn’t feel like commenting on that.

 

[inkswamp]

I find it very ironic that someone who was left by his biological parents and put up for adoption repeated the damage to his child in a way.

People growing up and unknowingly doing the things to their children that were done to them is a known phenomenon, and Steve was human. I don't know why people would expect that he'd be an amazing father just because he was great in other ways.

 

[Kabeyun]

In every recall, Steve Jobs is almost always described as a giant d-bag. Could it be.... TRUE?

Probably. But most of us knew that already anyway.

Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. History is filled with temperamental, egotistical geniuses, who changed the world. Isaac newton was a giant ay-ho. This is one person’s perspective (about a guy who is unable to respond, by the way), and no one here should presume to think they understand the totality of his character based on some titillating memoir.

But Steve Jobs is long-dead and I couldn’t care less. This feels kind of voyeuristic. My focus is on Apple’s future, it seems pretty good.

 

[Kaibelf]

That account of the meeting when she was three years old seems oddly very detailed. I remember things from my childhood but certainly not things like when someone moved their hair.

 

[inkswamp]

In every recall, Steve Jobs is almost always described as a giant d-bag. Could it be.... TRUE?

If what she's recounting is the worst of what Jobs did to her, then she should consider herself very lucky. He's hardly a d-bag by comparison to some of the horrific stuff other parents out there have subjected their children to. Me personally, I'd have gladly traded my abusive parents for a "d-bag" like Steve Jobs. Probably best to put it in perspective.

 

[WannaGoMac]

That account of the meeting when she was three years old seems oddly very detailed. I remember things from my childhood but certainly not things like when someone moved their hair.

I believe it says her mother told her "my mother said later, when she told me the story.)"

 

[DakotaGuy]

In every recall, Steve Jobs is almost always described as a giant d-bag. Could it be.... TRUE?

Probably. But most of us knew that already anyway.

Oh yes he was brutal at times, but that made him a great CEO.

 

[chucker23n1]

I honestly do think it would be pretty similar. Yet the people on forums loveeee to say otherwise. Mac Mini would still be a stepchild and iPhone X would still be $999 with the same hardware.

Steve seemed to be more aggressive about killing off the old, so we probably wouldn't have any Mac mini at all. Nor a MacBook Air.

 

[bizack]

I find it very ironic that someone who was left by his biological parents and put up for adoption repeated the damage to his child in a way. Steve may have been a great entrepreneur and visionary, but hurting one's family members at a crucial age – especially when he was wealthy – is no small thing.

That's pretty common and why the pattern repeats. Children with traumatic childhoods don't typically end up being great parents without some level of self-realization that they need to resolve past issues in order to be a healthy parent. From what little we know about Steve Jobs, it doesn't appear he took the time to acknowledge or do this.

 

[dogslobber]

She's met Bono!

 

[kazmac]

No child should go through being denied. My dad did it with us and it stunk on ice.

I am not surprised by what I read in that excerpt, I just hope she’s okay now.

 

[KPandian1]

Parenting is complex, even for a rich man, no matter if he is a prick or a saint, when the parents are not in a relationship that glows with harmony. Steve Jobs was not the saintly type!

That said, not matter how well things were done even with a perfect marriage, children will always find a thread to pull on and unravel the whole thing. Not present enough, too much presence, too poor, too rich, too blond, too tall, ... the list is long.

 

[code-m]

That account of the meeting when she was three years old seems oddly very detailed. I remember things from my childhood but certainly not things like when someone moved their hair.

One has to consider that her interactions with her father were limited, when she did interact with him it creates a permanent impression as she does not know if she will see him again. It’s similar to trauma. In your situation you may have seen your parents routinely and so those memories do not stick out, it just gets blurry and buried with the rest.

I believe her recollection is as she perceived as her judgement is not clouded with all the other noise that we get introduced and accustom to over our life.

A child remembers the good and bad even at that age, the rest is somewhere in between. Think of it as bookmarking a specific chapter or page in a novel.