Writer:

Lisa brennan-Jobs, an American writer was born in May 17, 1978. She is the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan. Jobs initially denied paternity for several years, which led to a legal case and various media reports in the early days of Apple. Lisa and Steve Jobs eventually reconciled, and he accepted his paternity. Brennan-Jobs later worked as a journalist and magazine writer.

An early Apple computer, the Apple Lisa, is named after Brennan-Jobs, and she has been depicted in a number of biographies and films, including the biopics Pirates of Silicon Valley, Jobs, and Steve Jobs. A fictionalized version of her is a major character in her aunt Mona Simpsons novel A Regular Guy.(R.8)

Story:

Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents―artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs―Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley. When she was young, Lisa’s father was a mythical figure who was rarely present in her life. As she grew older, her father took an interest in her, ushering her into a new world of mansions, vacations, and private schools. His attention was thrilling, but he could also be cold, critical and unpredictable. When her relationship with her mother grew strained in high school, Lisa decided to move in with her father, hoping he’d become the parent she’d always wanted him to be. Part portrait of a complex family, part love letter to California in the seventies and eighties, Small Fry is a poignant coming-of-age story from one of our most exciting new literary voices.(R.9)

Highlights vs self- reflection:

1.p.172: You’re wasting your life, if you don’t study now, you won’t find what you love to do, and then you won’t get to work with intelligent people later.p.126: you know, I didn’t go to college, maybe you won’t go either. Better just to go out and get into the world. Liz thought: If I didn’t go to college, I would be like him. Parents sometimes teach kids in a way of confusion. They need to figure out later on.

2. p.315: “There was no unimportant, no negligible, being, I felt, just then; slapping ocean was connected to the galactic immensity.” We are not small fry at all, we all connect with the cosmos.

Golden Sentence:

1. p.347:If you still desire a thing, its time has not yet come, and when you have what you desired, you will have no more desire, instead you will have time. weak desires protect you from disappointment, but nothing keep you safer than being a visible ruin-Fanny Howe

2.p.208:It wasn’t love that brought people together and kept them together, but values.

3.p.293: I was both the one hurt and the narrator of the hurt.

Conclusion:

1.Every cloud has a silver lining and every tough situation has a lesson hidden within. P.378:”  I wouldn’t trade any part of my experience for someone else’s life, I felt then, even the moments where I’d wished I didn’t exist, not because my life was right or perfect or best, but because the accumulation of choices made had carved a path that was characteristic and distinct, down to the serif, and I felt the texture of it all around me for just a moment, familiar, like my own skin, and it was good enough.

2. p.380: I thought it was my mother who lost things-houses, objects, my father.

3. Jobs create serif, Lis is also part of his serif. Even Jobs is gone with the wind, the serif is always there. Liz can feel he is there forever.

4. Liz is Job’s unmarried daughter who used to live with Chris, a poor artist. After having a quarrel with Chris and ran away from home. Social Service reconciled her to live with Jobs. Jobs took the promise with 6-month request without visiting her mom. Liz lived in the basement without heater and needed to do the dishes without dishwasher and had to babysit Reed. Job snapped at her under the comtempt. She was so lonely and needed to see the consultant since she was kid, Jobs even taught her to do masterbation and hops. Liz tried to prove herself, she got the permission to enter Harvard. Steve refuses to pay her tuition till the end. Jobs owe her love. But Liz learn that every serif has the texture, no matter good or worse. A hater can be the best hate-narrator-the one and the only one in her life.

5. Jobs is a AI trainer: dominant, straight, sharp, cold, not a Life- lover, warm, understanding, caring, we learn that everyone could be a small fry on one side, and a big whale on the other side, after we read this book, we can have a better understanding behind the scene.

Small Fry by Faye:

   Small Fry is a memoir about Lisa Jobs’ childhood and her father Steve Jobs’ relationship since she was born.  In the book Lisa jobs vividly describe about her feeling when she met with her father and how she interacted with him through out of her life until the very last day of her father’s life.   Lisa was born to her unwed mother during the ages of Hippie, Steve never accept the fact that Lisa was his child, at about 7 years old of Lisa’s age a DNA test was done to reveal the truth, and Steve was ordered by the court to pay for the child support, it was also prior to the time that Apple’s Mckintosh computers was going to be made public.  Even though Lisa and her mother ended 13 times of moving and finally had a house to stay, but their house is very empty, and was in need of furniture and necessities, for which Steve Jobs had never willingly provided with. 

Lisa was very mature for her age, when her father came to visit she would do anything to please him and hoping for his love. However Steve would often insult her, discourages her and continually acted very cold to her. When Lisa was in high school, she was invited to stay with the family, which consists of her father Steve, stepmother Laruen and younger brother Reed.   Lisa was glad to be closer to her father, but her father required her not to see her mother for six months. Lisa was put in a room that was cold and far away from the family members, Steve would not do anything to it, then there is a room closer to the family , she ask to switch to that room, Steve said : “nope “ too. The dishwasher was not working, Lisa would have to do the dishes by hand every day, she ask for repair, Steve said: nope, and when mechanics came along and she spend a little money to change a part and had it fixed, Steve bought a new one the next day to replace it.  Lisa was heavily involved with after school activities, she need to stay late at school, she ask her father to pick her up after school, he said:”nope” again. One time Steve complain that Lisa did not stay with family enough, he wanted her to skip school classes and go with the family to Hawaii for vacation, Lisa said she did not like to miss school, Steve said: then you are not belong to this family, it made Lisa lied to the teachers that she was visiting colleges.  

Steve Jobs would also tell Lisa to try LSD or work at the strip bars or teased her height, or used weir languages, or criticized that Lisa need to lose weight while she is having an eating disorder.   Lisa thought that her father was very different from the other parents, he would create his own dish in the restaurant and gave the waitress hard time, he would yell at Lisa’s cousin ordered hamburger dish and make her cry, evidently, he was a very strange and unemotional person, like the stepmother said: We are very cold person.

     In the last year of her college at Harvard University Steve refused to pay for her tuition, a couple lived in the neighborhood, Kevin and Dorothy end up paid for her tuition, so that she could  finish her college and get job. However, when the graduation came up, Lisa decided to invite her father and stepmother to join the celebration. 

 Steve got cancer and died pretty young, when Lisa was in her 30^”s, each time when she visit him he kept apologized to her by saying :” I owed you one. I owed you one “.  We do not know if Lisa forgave him completely.

 I raised several questions here to provide some sort of thinking.

1. Why Lisa had this compulsive desire to steal her father’s item like tooth paste or crack up cups ?

Jobs never admit that Lisa computer is named after her, until Liz is 27. After he admits it, Liz put all the stolen stuff back. She is not feel alone any more.

1. Why a genius like Jobs did not care for school education? 

Jobs just went to college, that’s why he thought out of the campus we can learn more practical.

1. Was Steve a monster or an ordinary father trying to teach his daughter some good lessons.

Just like Jobs treat the parrot, from Liz’s point of view, he is bullying it, but from Jobs’ view. He will find out if it can be trained from experience. Jobs refuse to pay her tuition, but till the end. He paid it back to Kevin and Dorothy who paid for Liz’s tuition in advance. While Liz lost her bike, Jobs wanna her to do dishes without dishwasher and take care of Reed. It’s harder for a rich Jobs to treat kids in a mean way.

1. At her graduation ceremony, Lisa invited her father and stepmother to join the celebration, why?  Was the couple who help to pay the tuition, Kevin and Dorothy upset about it? 

Jobs and Laurene still slip through the river gate of Winthrop House to see Liz graduation ceremony. Kevin and Dorothy thought that Jobs is very sanctimonious. 

1. Refer to Page 362 at the last paragraph, do you agree what had said by the friend ?

Lisa is going to find out she can’t replace her parents and Kevin and Dorothy are going to learn they can’t buy a daughter. P.347:If you still desire a thing,  its time has not yet come. And when you have what you desired, you will have no more desire, instead you will have time. Weak desires protect you from disappointment. But nothing keeps you safer than being a visible ruin.-Fanny Howe, Indivisible. We are kind of weak to buy love to prove who we are. P.290: I felt some other part of me rise out of a shell-maybe my soul-the texture of it all around me again. All the suffering, make Liz more conscious to invest herself more.

1. What was Steve’s last word to Lisa “I owe you One “ means ?

p.202:” maybe his ideals were only for me, an excuse not to be generous with me. Maybe he was bifurcated and couldnt help trying to impress other people in the obvious ways rich people do, even as Id thought, with his holey jeans, his strange diet, his emphasis on simplicity, his crumbling house, he didnt care. “ Maybe he lost the chance to treat her like he treat others. Cos she is her unmarried daughter. He can’t admit it. This owe Liz once.

Thanks to Faye submits promptly the Summary and Questions in the early of October, I think this is a good book which tells us Lisa went through the living of a single familys grief while her father - Steve Jobs is a famous and rich on his career. 

 Summary of Small Fry

Thanks to you all offer us book recommendations  which we have collected 15 books, and Florence Peng - our old enthusiastic member will help me to sort a book list in which we can  pick up 9 books for our coming year books.

Please note, you need to pay our Kaohsiung International Women Culb (KIWC) annual fees, NT$1500,  which we will put into the account  of the social welfare, and you need to pay NT$500 for our book clubs fund. NT$2000 in total in our Oct. meeting.

We are so sorry that our Oct. meeting needs to return to Qubit Cafe, Lyida is not in Taiwan, she is going abroad, but she says she welcomes us to have a gathering at her condo in Dec. meeting, we will have a potluck at her sweet home to celebrate the Christmas by the time.

November 4,  Activity:

Book: Small Fry

Author: Lisa Jobs

Leader: Faye Wang

Time: 1 p.m. Nov. 4, 2019

Place: Qubit Cafe (Hanshin Arena) No.6, Lane 50, Bo-Ai 3 Road,

Zuo Ying District, Kaohsiung.  Tel:07-3459477

 Book Discussion for Nov. 4, 2019

Dear All,

Thanks for Faye’s fascinating lead in the Nov. meeting, our ladies are so anxious to take a peek of Job’s window of Johari. We so appreciate that Faye reshuffle our mind to nail down to see a tycoon’s daily trivial stuff with kind and understanding eyes. Jobs is an outstanding cyber trainer: dominant、mean、straight、 sharp、 cold、fickle and sanctimonious, not a Life- lover： warm、 understanding、 caring、sympathetic and generous. We learn that everyone could be a small fry on one side, and a big whale on the other side. After we read this book, we can have a better understanding behind the scene. Like Liz learned from her self therapy biography: p.315: “There was no unimportant, no negligible, being, I felt, just then; slapping ocean was connected to the galactic immensity.” Liz still part of his father’s best invention, like serif within the creative texture. So far as our book leader Faye articulates: Jobs is a genius, but a very strange and cold person. We had wonderful discussion about this person, some gave him reason, some could not forgive his cruelty. Anyhow it was a good book to choose, everyone seems to enjoy the section of meeting.  Appreciated very much that Mingli and Lydia join us with (line) and gave us remarkable thoughts. Thank you all and looking forward of next book.

December 2, Activity:

Book: Emotional Blackmail

Author: Susan Forward

Leader: Lydia Lai

Time: 1 p.m. Dec. 2, 2019

Place: Qubit Cafe (Hanshin Arena) No.6, Lane 50, Bo-Ai 3 Road,

Zuo Ying District, Kaohsiung.  Tel:07-3459477

Related Reading:

1.Book Review: https://www.thenewslens.com/feature/timefortune/105036

2.Jobs last words: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JxQSk6TVDo0thfqTT3teVA

3.Taxxahara: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tassajara_Zen_Mountain_Center

4.kitsune udon: https://matcha-jp.com/tw/1604

5. California oak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_oaks

6.copper beech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_beech

7. Lick-Wilmerding in San Francisco: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick-Wilmerding_High_School

8. Lisa Brennan-Jobs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Brennan-Jobs

9.Small Fry Review: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Fry-Lisa-Brennan-Jobs/dp/0802128238

10.Steve Jobs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs