Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

I’m a huge Friends fan, and Chandler was(is?) my favorite character in the show. So I had to read his memoir when it came out.

The book was fascinating; his childhood, albeit torn, was amusing to read about. His foray into Hollywood and the events leading up to his getting the role of Chandler. But what many didn’t realize, or at least I didn’t know up until I read more about Matthew Perry after he passed away, was his intense and prolonged battle with addiction over the course of his entire life–The Big Terrible Thing. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the magnitude and the impact of his addiction on his life. For him, it meant long and numerous, often back-to-back, rehabs in different parts of the country and sometimes the world. It was hard to read him recounting his addiction-ridden lifestyle back in the day. And it makes you wonder how he kept it altogether so far; it’s indeed impressive.

That being said, there are some instances in the book (the Keanu Reeves incident) that left a bad taste. Even though he acknowledges his shortcomings when it comes to dealing with people around him and how much of a pain in the ass he can be, his writing still portrays the same Matthew Perry, which is contradictory, to say the least. This was a conflicted read for me–worth it if you’re a fan to get to know the troubled man behind the sarcastic character on screen.