What's a legend? In literature, it's a handed-down narrative that captures a culture. In mapmaking it's a table that explains the symbols, and in show business, it's Barbra Streisand. Even if her music is not your music -- or her politics your politics -- you should grant her legendary status.
As Mr. Mann writes very early in the book, everyone in 17-year-old Barbra's acting class knew she burned with an unusually intense heat, knew how much she wanted (not fame and fortune), but simply to be great: "She wanted to be [Eleonora] Duse, she said, though she'd never seen Duse act ...
