Streisand.

Somewhere along the line, Barbra Streisand became an institution Her identity as a gay icon has superseded even Judy Garland's, and she's been called a living legend for so long that even her enemies have begun to believe it. On a personal level, Streisand has also been called troubled, conniving, and a ruthless control freak. And she has weathered intense professional criticism as well. In this exhaustively detailed profile, which begins with Streisand's birth and takes us right up to The Mirror Has Two Faces, writer Anne Edwards tells us why the diva has been so terribly maligned--and how her deep seated insecurities led to unsurpassed stardom.

Edwards's biographies are always encyclopedic, her texts meticulously recorded and endlessly footnoted; anyone who doesn't want details like record-album catalog numbers, former home addresses, and motion picture release dates can look to lesser biographers. This time out, Edwards--who cowrote the first draft of the screenplay for Streisand's Funny Girl--conducted more than a hundred interviews with her subject's family, friends, lovers, and business associates. We get their take (and Streisand's, via previously released print and television interviews) on every aspect of the star's life as well as some biting and occasionally quite nasty commentary from Streisand's adversaries. Because the bare facts of this woman's life are well-known, Edwards digs deeper and dishes up the story behind the story, mining minutiae for fans (like the minirevelation that Columbia Records didn't want to release the record-breaking Broadway Album, fearing it would bomb) as well as information for Barbra beginners (like the correct pronunciation of her name--it's "Stry-sand," not "Stry-sunned").

More important for gay readers, Edwards doesn't gloss over Streisand's numerous personal relationships with homosexuals. The book reports candidly on the singer's response to news that her son, actor-filmmaker Jason Gould, is gay. As a result of that revelation, Edwards infers, Streisand has become more devoted to creating such gay-specific projects as the telefilm Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story and Larry Kramer's AIDS play The Normal Heart, which Streisand planned for years to make into a movie. (It's delightful to read an account of the curmudgeonly Kramer actually being intimidated by another person, albeit momentarily. Kramer reports that "it took a while before I felt free to say what I actually thought" in Streisand's presence. Imagine that.)

This newest Barbra biography is tremendously readable. It provides an entertaining showbiz story even for readers who may have no special interest in Streisand. That's partly because Edwards's writing is not blemished by infatuation with her subject--and also because this biographer was wise enough simply to set down the facts of a fascinating woman's life.