Matthew Ciarvella's Reviews > Steve Jobs

"This is going to be a warts-and-all biography. I'm going to tell it like it is! No sugarcoating! But the thing is, the person in this biography has no flaws! Let me tell you how the person I wrote about is absolutely perfect, who has only the sorts of flaws that seem to make this person even better." Yeah. How many times have I read that introduction? How many authors have promised to give all the whole story and then delivered a glossy highlights reel rather than the real thing?

I'm pleased to say that Walter Isaacson did no such thing. He promised us an intimate portrait of a brilliant, driven man who could be cold, could be ruthless, could be manipulative. Isaacson delivered on that promise.

I'm not going to go into the details of Jobs' life; that's what this book is for, after all. Instead, I want to tell you about the book itself. And the thing I want to tell you most is that the book is very, very good and you should read it.

I also want to tell you that I read this book on my Microsoft Surface tablet and that I'm about as dedicated a Microsoft fan as they come (ZUNE FOREVER!!!!) I'm not an Apple man. I might be in the future (ALMOST picked up an iPhone this time around, but the high price point eventually drove me off), but when I read this book, it was deep in the throes of my Windows devotion. So that's the kind of person who is giving this book five stars. The kind of person who Steve Jobs would denigrate, were he among the living. The kind of person who doesn't buy his products, hasn't ever watched a product reveal, a person who doesn't find the term "reality distortion field" as something that's charming.

And yet. And yet.

I still love this book. I loved reading about Jobs' life. I love tech, and love him or hate him, Jobs shaped the tech world as we know it today. Most of all, however, I loved Isaacson's writing style. I loved his approach, the exact perfect balance between fly-on-the-wall, recounting Steve's own voice while sometimes inserting his own editorial voice to counter some of the claims made by the reality distortion field. It's the best kind of biography, because it's not a monument, not a tribute, not an ode or a paean, it's simply the story of one's life. That's a rare treat in and of itself, but it's made all the more special because of the care Isaacson shows his subject. You can feel the exhaustive level of research that went into every page.

After reading this book, I'm absolutely certain I would never have wanted to work with Jobs (not that I have the technical skill to do so anyway, I won't flatter myself). I'm not particularly certain I'd ever even like being around him, reality field or no. But I spent the past weekend with him and I am better for it. I'm better for having read his story as the world is better for having his influence through his work and his legacy. I can think of no higher recommendation than that.