Perhaps the problem is that the most of the people who might forgive him never damned him in the first place. And everyone who might damn him now—his monstrous narcissism is left undeniable—has no reason at all to forgive him.In passage after passage of “Small Fry,” Mr. Jobs is vicious to his daughter and those around her. Now, in the days before the book is released, Ms. Brennan-Jobs is fearful that it will be received as a tell-all exposé, and not the more nuanced portrait of a family she intended. She worries that the reaction will be about a famous man’s legacy rather than a young woman’s story — that she will be erased again, this time in her own memoir. ... Ms. Brennan-Jobs’s forgiveness is one thing. What’s tricky is that she wants the reader to forgive Mr. Jobs, too. And she knows that could be a problem.
“Have I failed?” she asked, in one of our conversations.
