Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir

Oh this is so incredibly sad 😢 I love friends so much. When M was born, I had friends in the background all day long until Cam got home. It felt like they were my friends. Lol. This memoir is so raw, he talked about his addiction like crazy, it's mind blowing how someone with so much money who literally had it all, can still end up like this. Money does not solve all your problems. His childhood was rough. Him telling his story about being on the plane alone when he was five was crazy. It's just not a happy story. I kind of see how some people didn't like his candidness with this memoir. Some might think he was a little too much, too rude, too narcissistic. But I feel like for someone who struggles with this kind of addiction, it is to be expected? Nobody liked the way he talked about women and how he dated, but did we forget he wasn't sober for any of this? Lol I appreciate how honest he was in telling all the stories. He didn't hold back and I truly feel it shed light and understanding on just how destructive addiction can be. I definitely like him more after this.

Solid 4.5 Stars

I’ve read quite a few memoirs this year and I have to say this is one of my least enjoyed. I am a huge fan of Friends, having watched it as a child I was very attached to the characters and Chandler was one of my favorites, so obviously I had to read Matthew Perry’s memoir. Unfortunately, I didn’t really gain much insight or enjoyment from his memoir due to his lack of self reflection and completely out of touch comments. For example, he said he’d rather be poor and worrying about rent every month than be an addict, which sure ok, addiction is terrible, but so is living in poverty something he has NEVER experienced and never will since he makes it a point to state that he made 1 million an episode MULTIPLE times throughout his memoir, so kindly shut the fuck up Matthew Perry. He seems to be completely disconnected from reality and makes a lot of gross comments about women, comparing his pain to childbirth, blaming his addiction on his mother, and stating that he’d “give it all away” just to be free of his addiction. An addiction that he takes literally no responsibility for which is why he probably struggles so hard to leave it behind. I’m not here to beat down Matthew Perry but after listening to this memoir, I think he’s pretty narcissistic and really needs to be humbled. Honestly, this memoir was also really hard to follow because he repeats himself a lot, even starting and ending with the same exact story where he even repeats some of the same lines. Along with repeating stories he also jumps around in time every other chapter making it very difficult to follow. He never seems to learn a single thing from any of his near death experiences and makes some really gross comments about Jennifer Anniston and Salma Hayek, only speaking positively about his male co-stars…..not a good look. While I didn’t necessarily enjoy this and have a lesser view on Matthew Perry now, it was interesting to listen to his narration as he revealed the struggles he had behind the scenes for over a decade while filming Friends and other projects. I would not recommend this to anyone but fans of Friends or Matthew Perry. And even then, really think about it

Like 99% of the world, Chandler is my favorite from Friends, so when I saw Matthew Perry had a memoir coming out I knew I wanted to read it.

It’s not bad, but it definitely would have benefited from some more editing… I listened to the audiobook, and had Perry not narrated it there is no way I would have finished. I listened to it because it was read by him, not for the content if that makes any sense. His honesty in regards to his struggles with addiction is 5/5. I appreciated his typical self deprecating humor throughout.

Not the best audiobook, but it definitely has its moments!

Read it in one day. A little hard to follow the narrative in terms of chronology as it jumped around quite a bit. I like redemption books where addicts and alcoholics explain what happened and their recovery process.