My Name Is Barbra

Content Warning: This text features discussions of sexual assault, death by suicide, domestic abuse, drug and alcohol misuse and addiction, sexism, antisemitism, racism, anti-gay bias, and xenophobia.

Since the beginning of her acting career, Barbra Streisand has been both criticized and glorified for her looks. This has often bothered her. In general, people who do not know her have been telling stories about her for decades—so much so that she is worried no one will believe the truths she tells in her autobiography—but that is exactly why she feels the need to write it.

After Streisand’s father dies when she is just one year old, Streisand, her mother Diana, and her older brother Sheldon move into their grandparents’ one-bedroom apartment on Pulaski Street. Streisand is a bright student, yet she is criticized for her conduct and strong will. On her block, she is known as both the girl without a father and the girl with the good voice; she sings for her friends on her stoop in Brooklyn. Her mother marries a man named Lou Kind and they quickly have a daughter named Roslyn. Lou seems to resent Streisand and is rude to Diana. Streisand laments not having a proper family; her mother never even tells her about her father.