Neal Gabler

There is no one quite like Barbra Streisand. She has been called the “most successful...talented performer of her generation” by Vanity Fair. Her voice, said pianist Glenn Gould, is “one of the natural wonders of the age.” She has scaled the heights of entertainment—moving from popular vocalist to first-rank Broadway star to Oscar-winning actress to producer and director. And she has become something much more than a performer. She is a cultural icon whose life and work resonate deeply in the hearts and minds of audiences. To achieve her astonishing success, Streisand had to overcome tremendous odds, not the least of which was her Jewishness. Dismissed, insulted, even reviled for acting too Jewish and looking too Jewish, she brilliantly converted her Jewishness into a metaphor for outsider-ness that would eventually make her the avenger for anyone who felt marginalized and powerless. In Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power, to be published April 26 by Yale University Press, Neal Gabler examines Streisand’s life and career through this prism of otherness—a Jew in a gentile world, a self-proclaimed homely girl in a world of glamour, a kooky girl in a world of convention—and shows how central it was to Streisand’s triumph as one of the voices of her age. Gabler makes vivid Streisand’s nearly unbelievable perseverance. She would not be wrenched from her chosen course by the early death of her father, a childhood of poverty and neglect, or the active discouragement of her mother and teachers. Told throughout her youth that she was unattractive, rejected by her high school chorus, discounted at auditions for being too Jewish, Streisand nevertheless demanded space, opportunity, attention. She refused to be cowed by critics or directors. Rather than change her looks, she demanded that the world change its view of beauty. Instead of following the rules, she challenged discriminatory ideas wherever she encountered them, breaking ground for women producers and directors, embracing political and social causes, and offering public critiques of behavior and practices that undermine women’s achievement. The latest volume in the award-winning Jewish Lives series, Barbra Streisand is an extraordinary story of a living legend whose remarkable toughness, otherworldly talent, and profound difference have reshaped American culture.