A worthy book, particularly for readers unfamiliar with any of the full-length Streisand biographies.
In the latest in the Jewish Lives series, an experienced biographer delves into Barbra Streisand's psyche.
Early on, Gabler (Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, 2006, etc.), two-time winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, establishes that he is not producing a detailed account of the singer/actress' life. Rather, he constructs a book-length biographical essay, filled with context about Streisand's Jewish persona as a hindrance and, eventually, in unexpected ways, as an aid to her professional successes. The author uses his stated goal as a partial explanation of why he never tried to interview his subject; his full explanation comes across as a series of rationales that weaken an otherwise admirable book. Born in 1942, Streisand harbored an urge to achieve stardom that seems nearly inexplicable considering the obstacles she faced. Gabler examines her childhood and adolescence with remarkable depth and skill given the book’s format as part of a limiting series theme. Streisand achieved many of her goals while still a teenager, making the author’s attention to her childhood and adolescence especially vital. At times, the author concedes certain ironies, as when Fanny Brice's daughter originally opposed casting Streisand as Brice in Funny Girl. "The girl who was always called too Jewish to play anyone but Jews was herself too Jewish to play a Jew who sought to temper her Jewishness," writes Gabler. Because Streisand's Jewish-looking face—particularly her large nose—figured prominently in the obstacles she overcame, Gabler is forced to deal with surface appearances, which leads to judgments that feel repetitive at times. When the author moves away from psychologizing to narrative reporting, fascinating details abound, such as the choosing of actor Omar Sharif, an Egyptian non-Jew, to play opposite Streisand in Funny Girl. The outbreak of war between Egypt and Israel nearly torpedoed that casting choice.
A worthy book, particularly for readers unfamiliar with any of the full-length Streisand biographies.Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-300-21091-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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