海角大神

One of Barbra Streisand鈥檚 signature songs is 鈥淧eople,鈥� from the musical 鈥淔unny Girl.鈥� But when Streisand, who landed the lead role in the Broadway production in 1963, first heard the lyric 鈥減eople who need people are the luckiest people in the world,鈥� the 21-year-old newcomer had a question for songwriter Bob Merrill.

鈥淚sn鈥檛 it people who 诲辞苍鈥檛 need people who are the luckiest people in the world?鈥� she asked. As she recalls in her massive autobiography, 鈥淢y Name Is Barbra,鈥� the lyricist shut her down with a curt 鈥渘o.鈥�

Streisand has a reputation for being difficult. She bristles at that charge but acknowledges that she could be, well, annoying, especially when she was starting out. Streisand, born in the Brooklyn borough of New York in 1942, was eager to learn and interrogated her collaborators about every element of their work. Confident in her opinions, she had the chutzpah to suggest ways colleagues could do their jobs better. 聽

The audiobook of the nearly 1,000-page tome, narrated by Streisand herself, runs to 48 hours. The promotional materials note that the audio version features excerpts from more than 40 songs, and while they鈥檙e a pleasure to hear, they鈥檙e like drops in the ocean over the course of such a lengthy account.聽

The appeal of the audiobook is not in the occasional song snippet, but in hearing Streisand tell her life story in her own indelible voice. She says she considers herself an actress more than a singer. (Her meteoric rise was set in motion after she won a talent show at a Manhattan gay bar in 1960; when she told her best friend she was planning to enter as a singer, the shocked friend responded, 鈥淚鈥檝e known you for two years and I鈥檝e never even heard you hum.鈥�) Her narration is entertainingly theatrical.

She dramatizes stories using various accents and the thick Brooklyn inflection of her youth; the many Yiddish phrases she deploys roll easily off her tongue. Streisand speaks in a conversational tone full of digressions 鈥� most appear in print, but some were ad-libbed for the audiobook. Now in her 80s, she describes, in exuberant detail, clothing she wore and meals she ate many decades ago.聽

Streisand is just as exhaustive when it comes to her career. She dissects nearly all of her acting roles, including in the movie version of 鈥淔unny Girl鈥� (for which she won the Academy Award for best actress in 1969), 鈥淭he Way We Were,鈥� and 鈥淎 Star Is Born.鈥� She devotes long chapters to each of the films she鈥檚 directed: 鈥淵entl,鈥� 鈥淭he Prince of Tides,鈥� and 鈥淭he Mirror Has Two Faces.鈥� She covers the making of many of the 50 studio albums she鈥檚 recorded for Columbia Records.聽

She鈥檚 candid about her love life, dishing about her early first marriage to actor Elliott Gould, which ended in divorce, and her happy second marriage to actor James Brolin. She also had many romances between marriages, including with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, actor Don Johnson, and tennis star Andre Agassi.

The book鈥檚 emotional core comes from her difficult childhood.

Streisand鈥檚 father died when she was only 15 months old. She pines for him still, particularly since her mother was remote and withholding when Barbra was a girl. Later, Diana Streisand became jealous of her daughter鈥檚 success. (鈥淲hy are they honoring her? Why aren鈥檛 they honoring me? I鈥檓 the mother!鈥� she seethed at a 1984 gala held in recognition of her daughter鈥檚 philanthropy.)

Despite Streisand鈥檚 shyness, stage fright, and what she calls a 鈥渄eep insecurity,鈥� she always expected to be famous. She also knew that she wanted to be in charge.

Negotiating her first record contract at age 20, she accepted less money in exchange for creative control. She鈥檚 remained in control ever since 鈥� in fact, she was the first woman to be writer, director, producer, and star of a Hollywood film (鈥淵entl鈥� in 1983).聽

Streisand makes a convincing case that she was tarred as 鈥渄ifficult鈥� because men in show business weren鈥檛 used to having women call the shots. 鈥淲hat is so offensive about a woman taking control?鈥� she wonders.聽

Some of her challenges are relatable. Much of the book is not. Streisand cloned a beloved dog; she faxed her friend Bill Clinton with political advice during his presidency; when the leaves on a tree on her property turned brown, she directed her gardener to hand-paint them green.聽

But do we want our divas to be relatable?聽

鈥淟ooking back, it was much more fun to dream of being famous than to actually be famous,鈥� she reflects at the end of the book.聽

It鈥檚 a tough job, but Streisand was born to do it.