Steve Jobs

December 19, 2011
If not the greatest of computer moguls, the late Apple Computer co-founder was certainly the most colorful and charismatic to judge by this compelling biography. Journalist Isaacson (Albert Einstein) had his subject's intimate cooperation but doesn't shy away from Jobs's off-putting traits: the egomania; the shameless theft of ideas; the "reality distortion field" of lies and delusions; the veering between manipulative charm and cold betrayal; the bullying rages, profanity and weeping; the bizarre vegetarian diets that he believed would ward off body odor and cancer (he was tragically wrong on both counts). Isaacson also sees the constructive flip-side of Jobs's flaws, arguing that his crazed perfectionism and sublime sense of designâhe wanted even his computers' circuit boards to be visually elegantâbegat brilliant innovations, from the Mac to the iPad, that blended "poetry and processors." The author oversells Jobs as the digital artiste pitting well-crafted, vertically integrated personal computing experiences against the promiscuously licensed, bulk-commodity software profferred by his Microsoft rival Bill Gates. (Gates's acerbic commentary on Jobs's romanticism often steals the page.) Still, Isaacson's exhaustively researched but well-paced, candid and gripping narrative gives us a great warts-and-all portrait of an entrepreneurial spiritâand one of the best accounts yet of the human side of the computer biz. Photos.

This authorized, highly discussed work delivers significant details of Jobs's secretive life, career, and creative sensibility. The author delivers his introduction. Formerly in leadership roles at CNN and TIME magazine, Isaacson has created a well-researched and balanced biography that emphasizes Jobs's mammoth ambition, genius, and brutal honesty. Dylan Baker's earnestness is expressed in a workmanlike narration. His style is not well matched to the urgency of Jobs's fascinating life story and the relentlessness of his personality. Without vocal characterizations, Baker's pacing is consistent, if too slow. Perhaps an unfortunate, if unspoken, message is that, with great genius, boorish behavior with staff, family, and others may ultimately lead to phenomenal innovative and artful business success. W.A.G. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine