The new Streisand book My Name is Barbra  is a heartbreaking, triumphant autobiography. It’s very long (over 900 pages on Kindle) and I don’t want it to end!

 

Here’s the link to it at Amazon: My Name is Barbra 

 

It’s as deeply thought out and well-written as her concerts, movies, and TV specials have always been  

 

While reading it, you know you’re in the intellectual presence of a truly unique, multifaceted creator, one who considers herself far more fortunate rather than “owed” her acclaim, even as she aches to be considered equally worthy of respect and acclaim as other award-winning writers, directors, and producers of her era — all men — during the time she was “putting it together.”

 

Her mental schism between wanting and receiving equal acclaim  has it genesis in her childhood and later into adulthood because of the influence of her demeaning, jealous mother. Longing for love that she could sense and feel, Barbra became so wary (over time) that she failed to recognize (and hence to fully embrace until very much later in life) the enormity of her fame and the depth and breadth of the people who truly loved her just as she was off-stage. And it certainly didn’t help when reporters, ex-lovers, jealous coworkers, and others took aim at her publicly for daring to be as exacting as she was as an artist.  Driven men are celebrated; driven women, castigated.

 

I found myself in tears several times. Barbra is able, in the telling, to bring you intimately inside her mind and heart. She’s funny, intense, exacting, infuriating, exciting, and utterly captivating as she puts you in her shoes so you can experience her life and times from her perspective. Any woman reading it will be able to relate.

 

“WOMEN SHOULD BE SEEN BUT NOT HEARD”

 

Too many men want “eye candy” at their side, a trophy to show off, guard and protect. Too few men want equal (or superior) women who make more money, are better known and respected, and who are entirely capable of taking care of themselves financially.  Most men are as insecure (or more insecure) than women.  They just aren’t given the latitude to admit it, or to seek help for what they feel they’re lacking. Most women can admit (at least to themselves) when they’re feeling overwhelmed, unprepared, or jealous.  Men appear to need to communicate “I have everything under control” even when they decidely don’t!

 

In My name is Barbra, you get inside her to personally eperience her nerves, her psychological injuries, her hurt, and how she comes to terms and grows to greater and greater maturity across time. But she is still not feeling complete, as if she has conquered all her demons. (No one ever does, if we’re being honest!)

 

I have a lot in common with Barbra

 

Perhaps I’m this intrigued by the book because I have so much in common with her.  Although I’ve always had passionate yaysayers along the way (as she usually did, too) it’s the naysayers  — the negative things that people communicate to us about ourselves or our goals —  that we can’t seem to stop thinking about.  “Too much a dreamer.” “Not a realistic career.” “You’re only eighteen. What do you know about life well enough to write about it?”  (Imagine telling Earl Hamner Jr/”John Boy Walton” or Anne Frank that!)

 

 

Naysayers are usually jealous/envious, feel defeated by fate, or they’re frightened for you

 

Not all naysayers are malicious. Parents of Creatives often worry that their offspring will become terribly disappointed when their “pie-in-the-sky” goals don’t reach fruition.

 

That said, many naysayers are.  Some don’t want you to succeed because doing so will change your personal relationship with them. Others want to continue to feel superior to you, or want you to feel obligated to them. Still others don’t want to be considered (by others) less worthy of love, respect, or notice than you are.

 

The way others treat you isn’t about YOU, it’s about THEM

 

For those who deemed Barbra a martinet and said so, they were viewing her from their perspective. She is uncompromising: she wants to do everything humanly possible to give the audiences she appears before the time of their lives. To do anything less would devastate her! To those who embraced her ethos, she was their kinda collaborator!  They were on the same wavelength.

 

(An aside: In fact, in readig this book, I’m inspired to write a one-person show based on my book DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal: A Harvest of Memories from the Fan Who Knew Him Best. I am envisioning telling, in rich detail and with lots of images and props, how I segued from being a fan on the outermost reaches of fandom to being at De’s bedside when he passed away. I think I might even know someone locally who will allow me to present it from their stage. I’m going to look into it.  If that happens, I will have it videotaped for posterity.)

 

I’m going to be sad to reach the end of her book. But when I do, I’m going to re-watch her movies, re-listen to her songs, re-watch her TV specials, and enjoy them all from the perspective of what she expected (and ultimately managed) to create as she and her collaborators worked their hearts and tails off to deliver to her fans.

 

Barbra Streisand is an international treasure.