iReview

iReview

Josephine K. Bush

Apple, Pixar, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad all with the ever included iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto are developed truly make it focused on the customer, the consumer, the Macintosh buyers and Pixar movie watchers. Who could of done it but the self-centered, genius of Steve Jobs himself? He made our world a world of advancements. What everyone else thought was impossible he made sure his team would endeavor to push through that and show the world what the closest thing to perfection was. The biography of Steve Jobs, consequently titled: Steve Jobs, was written by the most famous and clearly outspoken Walter Isaacson who has featured biographies such as; Ben Franklin: An American Life, Einstein: His Life and the Universe, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Walter Isaacson does a beautiful job not just showing the amazing outcomes Steve Jobs had on society today, but also how his twisted story left many people with a disgusted taste in their mouth, many appalled and many more curious about Steve and his many hard-ass dispositions. The novel is written through the stories which comprise to complete the collection of the life of Steve Jobs in book form.

As Steve Jobs neared his death, he wanted Isaacson to portray his life and show the rest of the world that he wasn’t the picture perfect Steve that many people saw at Apple World productions or the grand presentation revealing another hot consumer product. Jobs wanted everyone to see the “end-to-end” lifestyle he lived and what made him who he was. He wouldn’t change for anyone, and the biography does exactly that, it shows Jobs as a man with many strengths but some very pressing downfalls that made him a turn-off to most of mankind.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but you look at the Steve Jobs cover and it speaks to you. He looks at you sternly, nearly daring you to open the book up and read all about his life through Isaacson’s words, but he is also questioning you and through those glasses the sense of intelligence and quirkiness is vividly picked up on. Steve Jobs is not only the best biography that I have ever laid my hands on it is also the least sugar-coated, down to earth material that makes you feel as your inner-bluntness can shine as sharply as Jobs’ (which quite frankly isn’t hard for me to begin with but I love the honesty and straightforwardness in both Isaacson’s tone about Jobs and Jobs himself).

Although Walter Isaacson is truly a professional and a very formal one at that, his writing his informal and helps makes the reader captured. At one point he writes about the iPad and iPhone as well as the so-called apps that come hand and hand with it, and states, “its success came not just from the beauty of the hardware but from the applications, known as apps, that allowed you to indulge in all sorts of delightful activities.” The novel is based on experience and is beautifully transformed from interviews into paragraphs and there are also many direct quotes that help personify the book to an even greater degree.

For Walter Isaacson this was a new creation. His former books were about legacies who were long gone. Steve Jobs contacted Isaacson when he was approaching his death bed and at times Steve would suddenly have an outburst of life to present a new idea and lifetime worth of ideas. This was harder on the Walter as a biography writer because he was forced to contact family members, friends and acquaintances during a hard time. They all had in mind that he wrote this as a tribute to Steve’s life while his death was quickly approaching them all. Because Walter actually grew to know Steve Jobs, his biography was far more personal and attached to the legacy of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs was released soon after the death of Steve on October 5th. At 56 years old, he was a man who has been one of the biggest influences to our time and era. Today, in schools across the world, students learn in history about countless inspirational leaders, inventors and people who changed our life for what it would be. Steve Jobs changed our lives, he will forever go down in history books and the biography written by Walter Isaacson will continued to be read to help inspire more generations.