08/01/2018
…Small Fry, an entrancing memoir…will force readers to grapple with whether Jobs was not merely unmenschlike but a monster. It is not a stretch to say that if you read this book, you will never think of Jobs the same way again…Brennan-Jobs is a deeply gifted writer…from the striking opening…it is clear that this is a work of uncanny intimacy. Her inner landscape is depicted in such exquisitely granular detail that it feels as if no one else could possibly have written it. Indeed, it has that defining aspect of a literary work: the stamp of a singular sensibility. In the fallen world of kiss-and-tell celebrity memoirs, this may be the most beautiful, literary and devastating one ever written.
The New York Times Book Review - Melanie Thernstrom
★ 06/11/2018
Praise for Small Fry
A NEW YORK TIMES AND NEW YORKER TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR NPR, AMAZON, GQ , VOGUE (UK), BUSTLE, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, AND INDIGO TEEN VOGUE BOOK CLUB PICK
A 35 UNDER 35 DEBUT AUTHOR —New York Times Book Review Small Fry is a memoir of uncommon grace, maturity, and spare elegance… The reader of this exquisite memoir is left with a loving, forgiving remembrance and the lasting impression of a resilient, kindhearted and wise woman who is at peace with her past.”—San Francisco Chronicle —People —New Yorker —Shelf Awareness —Wall Street Journal Small Fry ] is a story of a girl growing up in 1980s and ’90s California trying to fit into two very different families and not belonging in either. It’s the story of her single mother trying to keep it together and often not succeeding. It’s the story of a family that is as imperfect as every family, things complicated by wealth, fame and, in the end, illness and death."—Associated Press —The Tablet (UK) —Entertainment Weekly , “Best Books to Read in September” —Vulture —The Times UK —Vogue Kirkus Reviews (starred review)—Publishers Weekly (starred review) —Booklist (starred review) Small Fry is a wonder of a book, and Lisa Brennan-Jobs is a wonder of a writer.”—Jamie Quatro Phillip Lopate Susan Cheever
A memoir of uncommon grace, maturity, and spare elegance.
Mesmerizing, discomfiting reading … A book of no small literary skill.
Here is a literary coming-of-age memoir of the highest order, the story of a child trying to find her place between two radically different parents, identities, and worlds...Small Fry is a wonder of a book, and Lisa Brennan-Jobs is a wonder of a writer.
As clear-eyed, amusing, honest, unsentimental and sad as any memoir I’ve read. . . . Ruefully compassionate and wise. No other book or film has captured Steve Jobs as distinctly as this one. The love between father and daughter, thwarted and baffled as it often is, comes through beautifully.
Brennan-Jobs is a deeply gifted writer … Beautiful, literary and devastating.
New York Times Book Review
A masterly Silicon Valley gothic.
A memoir of uncommon grace, maturity, and spare elegance.
Mesmerizing, discomfiting reading … A book of no small literary skill.
Eileen Stevens narrates Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s memoir of growing up the daughter of Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple, who denied paternity until she was 9. From her birth, Brennan-Jobs was subjected to her father’s erratic whims and peculiarities, often yearning for his attention and praise. Meanwhile, her relationship with her mother, with whom she lived for most of her childhood, often in poverty, became increasingly strained. Stevens voices Brennan-Jobs with empathy and emotion, adding layers of authenticity and intimacy with her conversational style. Speakers of dialogue are well differentiated, and even pacing keeps the story moving. Stevens is the perfect narrator for Brennan-Jobs’s imperfect childhood memories. A.L.S.M. 2019 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
★ 2018-05-28
