Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing

This memoir is full of anger and blame. I understand this person has had a tough life, and I wish him the very best. But, blaming doctors who saves your life, and friends for that matter, is disappointing.P.S. colostomy bags are not ‘unattractive’ so please don’t let this one man’s opinion of them get you down. They save lives, and I am a proud owner of one!

The first chapter of Perry’s memoir is so beautifully written that I gasped in delight. Fluid, funny, knowing, and clearly from the viewpoint of someone who had managed to absorb and come to terms with what he had done and comment on it with some vague amusement.The rest of the book can’t measure up, and indeed, it shouldn’t. When you learn that Perry, at time of writing, is only 18 months sober after many, many years of hardwon periods of sobriety and many more desperate returns to active addiction, you want to put your head in your hands and tell him to wait a few more years before writing - when he can properly look back.There is so much in this that may help people with their own recovery - the message that it really is one day at a time is one that is hammered home very effectively, not least through Perry’s horrendous difficulties giving up cigarettes of all things - but reading so much of it written in such bald, autobiographical, distant terms makes you ache for him and hope that, one day, he will achieve true satisfaction and contentment, and we will see that throughout all his writing.

I was expecting to love this. I really enjoy autobiographies as a genre and Matthew’s so good with language on screen. But it was very poorly written, almost as if the whole thing was originally bullet points and an editor asked him to make it full sentences, which he technically does but it feels very reluctant and disjointed. There’s no flair or discernible style to it at all. That along with the tedious drone of indulgent Hollywood nonsense made it quite a chore to reach the end, unfortunately!

Equal parts hilarious and heartrendingly sad, i read the entire thing in seven hours with only one break. I couldn’t put it down.Matty absolutely bares his soul in this book which is extremely distressing to read sometimes but always refreshingly honest and with his trademark ‘Chandler’ wit and humour. He never shies away from the truth, even when it doesn’t cast him in the best light. Addiction is a truly evil disease and I think Matty shining a light on it in this way can only be a positive thing - important for friends and family of those suffering with addiction to read, as well as Addicts themselves - there is always hope.As a massive Friends fan, I really appreciated reading the story behind the man that brought so much joy to my life from the screen and was such a huge part of a show that has never failed to cheer me up during tough times. Well worth the read, go buy it!

A very good book. I wanted to rate this book 4.5 stars but for me it definitely deserves a round up instead of down. If you are expecting a funny book, you might be dissapointed. There is some dark humour to take away some of the darkness Matthew Perry has faced. The shines a light the much misunderstanding disease that is addiction.The only complaint I had about this book is that it jumps around time periods a lot. For me it makes it a bit hard to follow, that is the only reason I considered taking a star off.I was not the biggest Friends fan, but it was almost impossible not know about it. I was always drawn to Chandler Bing. It was probobly him being the funny guy trying to fit in to the cool crowd, snd me bring the weird guy trying to fit in anywhere. They say certain actors are born to play certain characters, as it is their natural personality dialed up to 11. In this case Chandler Bing is the toned down PG version of the real Matthew Perry. Perry is literally Bing on steroids.This a Perry's story, his family, friends, relationships, mistakes, redemptions and courage. Yes this book is about addictions, how dangerous and damaging they can be to someone. However Perry does not use his addictions as an excuse to his behaviour. He talks openly about his thought processes as he does what he did. He faces up to his mistakes and (makes md think) genuinely want to make amends for hus mistakes. He does fall a number of times but he does not stay down.This a great book, that I think will genuinely help people if only for them to know that are not the only ones facing addiction problems and not yo give up. This is not a behind the scenes book of Friends. There is no big cast gossip. This is a book about issues, courage and redemption.