The first of the nearly thousand pages of My Name is Barbra opens disarmingly, heading off accusations of narcissism at the pass. “Am I a Babylonian queen or a basset hound?” Barbra Streisand muses about the contradictory descriptions she’s earned over the years, before deciding she’s “probably both (depending on the angle).” But not before recalling some of her unflattering descriptions, such as being described as “an amiable anteater,” “a seasick ferret,” and “a furious hamster.”
So, Barbra Streisand is many things to many people. And her life story has been told before — unauthorized biographies bearing titles such as Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity and Power or The Importance of Being Barbra: The Brilliant, Tumultuous Career of Barbra Streisand have emphasized the prurience and the gossip, the rumors of diva behavior, and the famous boyfriends — but it has never been told by her. Streisand’s prose is folksy and accessible, liberally sprinkling touches of Yiddish and self-deprecation into the mix as she tells the story of her ascent from an early life in Brooklyn stymied by her unsupportive mother to Oscar-winning stardom in 1968 with her signature role as the Broadway star Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, followed by a series of records that sold near-unimaginable quantities. Guilty, Streisand’s 1980 collaboration with the “very sweet” Barry Gibb, sold 15 million copies worldwide.
