cover image Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs: A Parody

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs: A Parody

Fake Steve Jobs, . . Da Capo, $22.95 (248pp) ISBN 978-0-306-81584-3

In this tedious parody of the life of Apple founder Steve Jobs, the pseudonymous Fake Steve Jobs (identified in the New York Times this month as Forbes senior editor Daniel Lyons) offers a gleeful sendup of the real Steve Jobs set amid the recent stock options backdating scandal. Throughout, the fake Steve pontificates on everything from his superior management skills (“only promote stupid people”) to his role in the development of the iPhone (it involves a lot of “non-thinking meditation”), and is portrayed as a cold, callow narcissist. Blissfully unaware of the legal firestorm raging around him, a “mathlexic” Fake Steve goes about his daily business, balancing meditation with the firing of employees while the Apple board of directors scrambles to avoid prison time and find a scapegoat. As the fictitious Apple corporation implodes, Fake Steve must decide whether to jump ship or stand by the company. Tech industry watchers who know (or know of) the players will get a kick out of seeing them skewered, but readers who aren't already tuned in to the Silicon Valley technocracy may not quite get it. Fake Steve doesn't really evolve as a character, but as a grotesque caricature, he's fun to watch. (Oct.)