The legendary Barbra Streisand has been one of my favorite performers ever since I first heard sing, watched her movies, and was entirely captivated by the singer's glorious cover of her first album, which I saw many years after it first came out. When I first saw Dr. Alma H. Bond's book BARBRA STREISAND, it dawned on me that I knew very little about Ms. Streisand. The On the Couch is an interesting concept: Dr. Bond is a Doctor of Developmental Psychology, but her biographies are mostly written from the point of view of a fan, while using her vast expertise to enlighten the reader as to the significance of certain types of behavior from a psychoanalytic point of view, and enabling us to look into our own life as well. Don't get me wrong here BARBRA STREISAND is far from a textbook as you can get; Dr. Bond, in the guise of fictional Dr. Darcy Dale merely comments once in a while to explain certain situations, and a few times offers more details concerning a point of particular interest.

BARBRA STREISAND is not an official biography, all the sources used by the author are of the public domain and clearly listed in the Bibliography at the end. Also included is a brief glossary of Yiddish. In addition to the cover, there are lovely black and white illustrations by Mary Grace Corpus. BARBRA STREISAND is a fictional account of the artist's year-long sessions with Dr. Dale. I had never read a biography done this way; I thought it was very clever, making it a livelier narrative. In fact, I liked the tone so much from the beginning, that I actually didn't care about the accuracy of the facts, because Dr. Bond captures the mannerisms and persona of Ms. Streisand as if it were on film, and it was all very entertaining. This BARBRA STREISAND is as exuberant, irreverent, energetic, and demanding as I imagine the real Barbra to be. The story is told in the form of dialogues, each chapter consisting of one session, and it's mostly chronological but occasionally jumps a bit over the place, as is wont to happen. BARBRA STREISAND was also very informative for me, as I learned why Ms. Streisand gave up live concerts, which her start in show business did not happen at all how I had imagined, and sexism in the film industry.

BARBRA STREISAND is extremely well written; I would have known immediately without any prompting which character was talking because their voices are uniquely their own. If you have ever heard Ms. Streisand's voice, you will understand what I mean. The flow is never interrupted even when the session comes to an end; it is so very easy to read, the tone is so natural, and you truly feel that you are getting to know this entertainment icon on a personal level. Even if it is fiction, it never feels fake, and even though Dr. Bond is a fan, she remains in character: Dr. Dale would not fawn over a celebrated client -- even if she does a little, internally.

Book Summary

Barbra Streisand has been a show business staple for decades, from Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! to The Way We Were and, more recently, the Fockers franchise. Whether gracing a stage, screen, or album cover, Barbra's iconic silhouette is a globally-familiar image. We know Barbra the star, but how well do we know Barbra the woman?

In Dr. Alma H. Bond's latest installment of her On the Couch series, Dr. Darcy Dale―a renowned New York City psychiatrist whose expertise has been sought by such larger-than-life women as Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and Hillary Clinton―is confronted by Barbra, dismayed after 30 years of minimally successful therapy. Over the course of a year, Dr. Dale conducts an intimate psychoanalysis, breaking through ego, defense mechanisms, and repressions to go deep into the heart and mind of one of America's last remaining superstars.