Title: Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing
Author: Matthew Perry
Publisher: FlatIron Books
Genre: Memoir
Celebrity or not, I’m not one to review memoirs. It’s just doesn’t sit well with me to judge their life. Also, generally they didn’t pursue the the dream of writing, the writing came to them. So, it isn’t always perfect or polished. And let’s be real . . . my opinion and little ole account isn’t going to make anyone go out and buy or not buy Matthew Perry’s book. Full stop. But listen I come from a family of alcoholics, so I don’t care about the delivery or any of those things; I applaud this man for sharing his story and if he can help one person, it will be worth it. Matty, I hope you stick with God and stay sober!!
But, nonetheless let’s break this one down:
Friends - So, if you’re buying this one for a tell all of the tv show Friends…don’t. Their isn’t much here. Now, I expected this, but I know others have been extremely disappointed. The six of them were such a tight knit group, even negotiating salaries together (which we DO find out who’s idea that was and more on that) so I’m not surprised he wouldn’t “betray” their sacred bond. I did enjoy hearing the story how he was the last casted and how he almost wasn’t.
Lovers - This is the part of the book where I think a lot of people are going to have issues. There is some name dropping of past girlfriends or crushes and quite frankly while honest, some of this is just cringe. However, the point I think Matty was trying to make over and over again was ‘Hey look, I had the job I wanted, money and the girl and I still couldn’t stay sober’
“I think you actually need all your dreams to come true to realize they were the wrong dreams.”
The Big Terrible Thing - All I can say is it’s shocking how bad things were for Matthew Perry. I mean, I watched Friends. I saw his weight gain with alcohol and weight loss with pills, but had no idea how bad things were for him. Pancreatitis at 30, then almost dying from colon damage.
I listened to the audio that Matty himself narrates (that’s what he tells his friends to call him and after you’ve been through this book I think you can call him a friend!) It’s a short book and I think the audio was right around 6 hours.
@bookfriendsbookclub picked this one for #nonfictionnovember and our thoughts were all over the place and we all come from different walks of life. But what I love about our group is we have such respectful and REAL conversations. Join us sometime!
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