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Barbra: The Way She Is
"Funny, I don't feel like a legend."
-- Barbra Streisand She is a one-name legend, a global icon, the ultimate diva. Yet most of what we know about Barbra Joan Streisand is the stuff of caricature: the Brooklyn girl made good, the ugly duckling who blossomed into a modern-day Nefertiti, the political dilettante driving to the barricades in her Rolls-Royce, the Oscar-winning actress and bona fide movie mogul, the greatest female singer who ever lived, a skinflint, a philanthropist, a connoisseur and a barbarian, the woman whose physical characteristics are instantly identifiable around the planet -- the tapered nails, those slightly crossed eyes, that nose, the voice . Even to the multitudes around the world who idolize her, Streisand remains aloof, unknowable, tantalizingly beyond reach. Until now. In the manner of his #l New York Times bestsellers The Day Diana Died and The Day John Died as well as Jack and Jackie, Jackie After Jack, An Affair to Remember , and Sweet Caroline , Christopher Andersen taps into important sources -- eyewitnesses to Streisand's remarkable life and career -- to paint a startling portrait of the artist . . . and the woman. Among the revelations: Whether you love her, hate her, or are simply spellbound by her titanic talent, Barbra is one thing above all others: a true American original.
-- Barbra Streisand She is a one-name legend, a global icon, the ultimate diva. Yet most of what we know about Barbra Joan Streisand is the stuff of caricature: the Brooklyn girl made good, the ugly duckling who blossomed into a modern-day Nefertiti, the political dilettante driving to the barricades in her Rolls-Royce, the Oscar-winning actress and bona fide movie mogul, the greatest female singer who ever lived, a skinflint, a philanthropist, a connoisseur and a barbarian, the woman whose physical characteristics are instantly identifiable around the planet -- the tapered nails, those slightly crossed eyes, that nose, the voice . Even to the multitudes around the world who idolize her, Streisand remains aloof, unknowable, tantalizingly beyond reach. Until now. In the manner of his #l New York Times bestsellers The Day Diana Died and The Day John Died as well as Jack and Jackie, Jackie After Jack, An Affair to Remember , and Sweet Caroline , Christopher Andersen taps into important sources -- eyewitnesses to Streisand's remarkable life and career -- to paint a startling portrait of the artist . . . and the woman. Among the revelations: Whether you love her, hate her, or are simply spellbound by her titanic talent, Barbra is one thing above all others: a true American original.
- GenresBiographyMusicNonfiction
448 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1905
About the author
Christopher Andersen
53 books202 followersLibrarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Christopher Peter Andersen is an American journalist and the author of 32 books, including many bestsellers. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Andersen joined the staff of Time Magazine as a contributing editor in 1969. From 1974 to 1986 Andersen was senior editor of Time Incorporated's People Magazine. He has also written for a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Life, and Vanity Fair.
While his early nonfiction books veered from psychology (The Name Game) to true crime (The Serpent's Tooth) to art collecting ('The Best of Everything', with former Sotheby's chairman John Marion), he is best known for his controversial biographies. Between 1991 and 2011, he published 14 New York Times bestselling biographies. Andersen wrote Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones in July 2012. The book quickly became Andersen's 15th New York Times bestseller.
Christopher Peter Andersen is an American journalist and the author of 32 books, including many bestsellers. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Andersen joined the staff of Time Magazine as a contributing editor in 1969. From 1974 to 1986 Andersen was senior editor of Time Incorporated's People Magazine. He has also written for a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Life, and Vanity Fair.
While his early nonfiction books veered from psychology (The Name Game) to true crime (The Serpent's Tooth) to art collecting ('The Best of Everything', with former Sotheby's chairman John Marion), he is best known for his controversial biographies. Between 1991 and 2011, he published 14 New York Times bestselling biographies. Andersen wrote Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones in July 2012. The book quickly became Andersen's 15th New York Times bestseller.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
November 25, 2013
I had to stop listening to this after only 1 cd. I enjoy Barbra movies and music but it is 90% ruined. What an awful wench she is. Just listening to the way she treats her staff was enough to enrage me. I took this book back to the library with a quickness. She is still a very talented and entertaining woman but what a super asshole. Coming from her poor background should have made her a kinder and more understanding woman. Not a huge bitch throwing her money around. Anyone who spends $100,000 on wedding flowers needs a good ass kicking.
August 8, 2021
I like Barbra's singing and her movies, but what an awful person. I quote Ginger Rogers from the book, "Manners, I think everyone should have them." She was rude. She alienated a vast majority of the people she worked with. She was very, very, very controlling and wanted things done her way. I have lost all respect for her.
October 19, 2008
I had heard a lot about this book and I'm not big into Barbra Streisand. I could see why a true fan may not want to read it. It tells the good, the bad and the ugly about her. Christopher Andersen is known to dug up dirt just like Kitty Kelley. I felt this was a good book for me. I didn't know much about Barbra, so it was good for me to learn about her. I had no clue that she had slept with as many famous men as she had. I also didn't know about her son, Jason's fight with HIV/AIDS. I thought it was interesting to see the quotes from others and Barbra's own thoughts on different parts of her life. This is definitely an unauthorized biography. The last section dealing with Barbra's hatred of President George W. Bush and the Republicans was a little overdone. I felt Mr. Andersen at times dramatized some events and downplayed some others that I wanted to know about. Overall, it wasn't a bad book and I would recommend it to others that just want an overview. However, if you are a huge Streisand fan then you will be upset with the amount of dirt that has been dug up.
October 24, 2008
I thought this was a good and informative book...but I don't think I should have read it! I love Barbra Streisand's voice and I love watching her in movies, but I kind of wish I would have left it at that! Sometimes it's so disappointing to find out what people are really like. Having said that, I still enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at her life and at the entertainment industry in general.
February 22, 2019
She ain't funny...and she sure is not nice..
October 5, 2012
This story of the legend that is Barbra Streisand chronicles moments of her life from the beginning.
Barbra: The Way She Is, however, starts in 1998 as she weds her soul mate James Brolin at their Malibu estate.
Circling backwards in time, we learn about her early ambitions to act, and how she found a way into that magical world that would hopefully give her what she had missed the most in life: acceptance and love. We learn of her critical mother and the hole in her life after her father's death. Her cruel stepfather definitely informed her journey.
In some ways, Andersen's biography seemed, however, to focus most on the negative elements in Barbra; almost as if he had an ax to grind. Was she really as atrocious, demanding, objectionable, and obsessive as his portrayal suggests?
But to be fair, he also gives us her stellar moments and lavishes the reader with details about her romances and numerous love affairs. His descriptions of her gorgeous lifestyle bring the reader right into those moments with her.
My favorite parts of her story dealt with her passion for design, bordering on almost obsessive perfectionism for creating rooms in her houses, as well as the details she would bring to the sets in the films she produced and directed. That perfectionism might seem overly zealous, but the results were fabulous.
In recent years, Streisand has produced her own fabulous book chronicling her Passion for Design. I luxuriated in those glossy pages.
At the end of Andersen's story, I liked this summation that seems to describe all facets of the woman:
"She is, to be sure, a mind-spinning tangle of contradictions: the ugly duckling regarded by millions as an exotic beauty, the boldly confident upstart riddled with self-doubt, the thrift-shop refugee who became a style icon, the generous philanthropist with miserly habits, the demanding diva in search of a father figure, the liberal firebrand with the queenly lifestyle, the electrifying performer crippled by stage fright."
A colorful read that I recommend to anyone who enjoys celebrity journeys, and specifically, for fans of Streisand, if one can discount the somewhat negative slant of the author. Three stars.
Barbra: The Way She Is, however, starts in 1998 as she weds her soul mate James Brolin at their Malibu estate.
Circling backwards in time, we learn about her early ambitions to act, and how she found a way into that magical world that would hopefully give her what she had missed the most in life: acceptance and love. We learn of her critical mother and the hole in her life after her father's death. Her cruel stepfather definitely informed her journey.
In some ways, Andersen's biography seemed, however, to focus most on the negative elements in Barbra; almost as if he had an ax to grind. Was she really as atrocious, demanding, objectionable, and obsessive as his portrayal suggests?
But to be fair, he also gives us her stellar moments and lavishes the reader with details about her romances and numerous love affairs. His descriptions of her gorgeous lifestyle bring the reader right into those moments with her.
My favorite parts of her story dealt with her passion for design, bordering on almost obsessive perfectionism for creating rooms in her houses, as well as the details she would bring to the sets in the films she produced and directed. That perfectionism might seem overly zealous, but the results were fabulous.
In recent years, Streisand has produced her own fabulous book chronicling her Passion for Design. I luxuriated in those glossy pages.
At the end of Andersen's story, I liked this summation that seems to describe all facets of the woman:
"She is, to be sure, a mind-spinning tangle of contradictions: the ugly duckling regarded by millions as an exotic beauty, the boldly confident upstart riddled with self-doubt, the thrift-shop refugee who became a style icon, the generous philanthropist with miserly habits, the demanding diva in search of a father figure, the liberal firebrand with the queenly lifestyle, the electrifying performer crippled by stage fright."
A colorful read that I recommend to anyone who enjoys celebrity journeys, and specifically, for fans of Streisand, if one can discount the somewhat negative slant of the author. Three stars.
July 4, 2009
My bias...
This book contains around 400 pages..............and I finished it within 2.5 days. Think about it, then!!!
This book contains around 400 pages..............and I finished it within 2.5 days. Think about it, then!!!
February 7, 2022
What a life, a talent, and brilliance!! RECOMMEND for history as well as info on Barbra. Really enjoyed listening to this, especially in her more recent times. She's such a unique person with many flaws and frequent cruelty to others, yet not just talent, but determination and such attention to details that she'll work long days on projects and miss many nights of sleep.
Interesting re her Jewish family back in Europe and early immigrant life. She had a dysfunctional family life in NYC with her older brother, younger sister, uncaring mother, and eventually a cruel stepfather, after her actual father died from stress and morphine treatment after being a camp counselor, and as a later result of a car accident on her parents wedding day.
The grandparents couldn't handle their living together after awhile. Barbra was a difficult child, but obviously her overactive brain was already at work.
It's hard to understand why Barbra was cruel and unhelpful to her younger sister who also wanted a career. When successful and rich, she honored her father with music and as much as possible.
Amazing how many men she was with and slept with over many years, some she married, a couple of whom had been juvenile delinquents, but turned out successful.
Well written and narrated by a talented reader who used a Jewish NY accent, but not so great on putting the stress on the correct syllable on the occasional common word.
Audio overdrive @ normal speed, 1.25 and 1.5.
Interesting re her Jewish family back in Europe and early immigrant life. She had a dysfunctional family life in NYC with her older brother, younger sister, uncaring mother, and eventually a cruel stepfather, after her actual father died from stress and morphine treatment after being a camp counselor, and as a later result of a car accident on her parents wedding day.
The grandparents couldn't handle their living together after awhile. Barbra was a difficult child, but obviously her overactive brain was already at work.
It's hard to understand why Barbra was cruel and unhelpful to her younger sister who also wanted a career. When successful and rich, she honored her father with music and as much as possible.
Amazing how many men she was with and slept with over many years, some she married, a couple of whom had been juvenile delinquents, but turned out successful.
Well written and narrated by a talented reader who used a Jewish NY accent, but not so great on putting the stress on the correct syllable on the occasional common word.
Audio overdrive @ normal speed, 1.25 and 1.5.
November 10, 2016
Christopher Andersen is so full of vitriol and deliberately spiteful that he hardly stops to catch a breath.
Not a single word about what makes Streisand a performer who can command $ 2 500 per concert ticket but a tons of gossip from cleaning ladies, grocery shop salesmen and people who immensely hate the star because she did not give them autograph when they ambushed her in a restaurant. Since he is not interested in her work, Andersen goes about Streisand's son being gay and her mother suffering from Alzheimer - its that kind of the book that actually gives you headache as sheer amount of envy, spite and obsessive negativity becomes tiresome. Anderson (and his spiritual sister, Kitty Kelley) is a kind of guy who could easily write book about any of us and gleefully expose our classmates testimonials.
Not a single word about what makes Streisand a performer who can command $ 2 500 per concert ticket but a tons of gossip from cleaning ladies, grocery shop salesmen and people who immensely hate the star because she did not give them autograph when they ambushed her in a restaurant. Since he is not interested in her work, Andersen goes about Streisand's son being gay and her mother suffering from Alzheimer - its that kind of the book that actually gives you headache as sheer amount of envy, spite and obsessive negativity becomes tiresome. Anderson (and his spiritual sister, Kitty Kelley) is a kind of guy who could easily write book about any of us and gleefully expose our classmates testimonials.
June 30, 2017
All people have assets and shortcomings, celebrities too. It is like the writer is saying "she may be a famous person, but look what a terrible person she is in private. I am not a very big fan of Barbra Streisand, but this book is 98 % negative.
So what If she has had many lovers, so has Mick Jagger.
There are informative biographies and then there are gossip biographies. Mr Andersen should learn from James Kaplan, who has written two biographies about Frank Sinatra, he describes Sinatra's good and bad sidens without being mean spirited.
So what If she has had many lovers, so has Mick Jagger.
There are informative biographies and then there are gossip biographies. Mr Andersen should learn from James Kaplan, who has written two biographies about Frank Sinatra, he describes Sinatra's good and bad sidens without being mean spirited.
August 13, 2011
I have always loved her singing and have been a fan. I found it enlightening but did a lot of skimming through the last 3/4 of the book. A bit too much.
Did not realize how much work she has done and with so many stars.
But like I said it was enlightening into who she was and is, a lot of which I never heard or knew.
Did not realize how much work she has done and with so many stars.
But like I said it was enlightening into who she was and is, a lot of which I never heard or knew.
March 30, 2014
This is the second biography I have ever read, and the fact that the author added more juicy details allowed the reader to really get behind the making-of-the-artist. (What's the use of only writing about an artist's light side and excluding the shadow side?)
It was well written and hard to put down, thanks to Andersen's writing skills.
And actually made me respect Barbra even more.
It was well written and hard to put down, thanks to Andersen's writing skills.
And actually made me respect Barbra even more.
October 13, 2023
Excellent audiobook! The stories rang true and really moved along. The narrator periodically delivered some quotes as Barbra herself, using a Brooklyn accent, which was really entertaining. There was a lot of story to tell, but it moved along at a good pace, which held my interest through the entire book. Good read!
May 8, 2008
Let me add that although I liked it, I liked James Spada's biography better.
May 22, 2009
If you like her you will like this book.
December 8, 2015
A superb book by a superb writer. I want to read everything I can get my hands on by this author. Very well done and lots of fascinating details and insights.
July 19, 2018
I really good insight on Streisand and her personality, some good and some bad. She was brilliant and driven.
August 15, 2023
I have been a long time Barbra Streisand fan. I watched a Netflix documentary about her and enjoyed it so I thought I'd like to read more about her. There are several options but I probably didn't pick the right one. I got weary, early on that she was a shrew. There were some interesting parts and I may have finished if I had a free option to listen to the audio book. But I decided that sitting to read this would be painful and time wasting....
Sorry Barbra - I still like some of your movies and your voice - divine....
I probably just don't want to know you that well... 🙄
Sorry Barbra - I still like some of your movies and your voice - divine....
I probably just don't want to know you that well... 🙄
February 25, 2024
Captivating
I enjoyed the immersion into the icon’s life, particularly how her father’s death affected her. I understand that kind of mourning. Did not realize that she was so political. Some of the ranting political views I could have done without. Although some of her pleas to Americans went unheeded and her resultant fears manifested. Really disappointed that it only covers her life up until 2005. Would have liked to have heard more of “Barbara the Way She is Now”.
I enjoyed the immersion into the icon’s life, particularly how her father’s death affected her. I understand that kind of mourning. Did not realize that she was so political. Some of the ranting political views I could have done without. Although some of her pleas to Americans went unheeded and her resultant fears manifested. Really disappointed that it only covers her life up until 2005. Would have liked to have heard more of “Barbara the Way She is Now”.
December 31, 2018
I could only make through half of the book. Not being the greatest admirer of Barbra's talent couldn't hear over and over again how terrible she is as a person. Clearly author is not her biggest fan.
March 26, 2020
Wish I didn’t know half the stuff written in this book.
December 21, 2020
the book made me feel guilty with every page as it’s mostly cruel.
that said, if you want juice, go for this.
that said, if you want juice, go for this.
December 20, 2022
Learned a few things that I never knew. Excellent reading.
July 15, 2019
After 411 pages, which took me so much time to read that the library refused to renew it any longer for me, I know MUCH more about Barbra then I really need to !!!!
January 12, 2024
I have had this book on my shelves for literally years. I recently pulled it off to read about Streisand's life. I am not a BS fan as a person, but I do think she is a fabulous singer and actress and I was curious as to finding out more about her. My goodness, this author had a lot to say about that. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I think the writing followed her timeline very well. It was easy to read and most interesting! No matter what is true or not, I felt the author delivered the information he had gathered in a neutral manner by simply presenting the facts he had collected through his extensive research and interviews. The book is a bit too long for my liking as I began to tire of the story. It would have been beneficial to have had more "breaks" in the writing, paragraph gaps, to aid in picking the book up later when one needs to stop. The first half of the book had few gaps, but I noticed the second half had more so made for a smoother flow and easier to transition into and out of the story.
Overall I enjoyed this book. It was truly unbelievable the number of lovers she had through the years. Lots of name dropping. I will refrain from expressing my personal opinions about her, but wow, what a fascinating life!
Overall I enjoyed this book. It was truly unbelievable the number of lovers she had through the years. Lots of name dropping. I will refrain from expressing my personal opinions about her, but wow, what a fascinating life!
January 18, 2015
The book does a decent job in depicting both the good, the bad and the ugly, but I felt disappointed by it in its entirety. The last chapters were especially hard to read, as it deals with a lot of Barbra's involvement with political issues.
It is up to the reader to decide whether to absolute hate or be in awe of Barbra's tour-de-force character. I've never been a hardcore fan, and I suppose I'll always remain an admirer of her talents and many accomplishments, but as flawed as the book is, it certainly changed my perception of Barbra as a human being (for the worse).
It is up to the reader to decide whether to absolute hate or be in awe of Barbra's tour-de-force character. I've never been a hardcore fan, and I suppose I'll always remain an admirer of her talents and many accomplishments, but as flawed as the book is, it certainly changed my perception of Barbra as a human being (for the worse).
January 12, 2008
Talk about a split personality! But her's is usually the *itch one. This tells the story of Streisand and it's not really a pleasant one. You always hear horrible stories about her and this book combines them all and more you haven't heard about!!
April 17, 2008
Confirms her reputation as a domineering perfectionist who never got her mother's approval
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April 3, 2010Sound recording
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May 28, 2012couldn't finish it..got really bored with it!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews