Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music

Considine, a onetime Columbia record publicist, recounts Streisand's personal and professional life with new and familiar tales which surround this musical legend. Beginning with her 18th year, he relates the struggles for recognition, her gritty determination to make it on Broadway, in music and films. Interviews with a handful of Streisand's friends and many foes create an unpretty picture: she is depicted as aggressive, bitchy, conniving, ungrateful, and only occasionally sweet and shy. Considine has his own answers to such burning questions as why Streisand never had a nose job (she worried that her singing voice would be changed drastically) and what her mother is really like. Refused an interview with the star herself, Considine had to rely on his own resources in determining fact from hype, so some readers may feel slightly short-changed. For the devoted fan, though, the book will be catnip. Photos not seen by PW. November 28