“You should watch this show, it’s hilarious,” I said to my wife, sometime around 1995. The show was, Friends, and I don’t think I need to explain to anyone what it was about.
That was back in a time where there was no streaming, no DVR’s. All we could do was catch the next week’s episode. And we did, pretty much every week for the next ten years.
When I heard Matthew Perry was publishing a memoir, the Friends fanboy in me knew I had to buy it.
I got the Kindle addition of Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir a couple of days after it was released. It sat there (well, Kindle books don’t really sit around like that ever-growing to-be-read pile, but you know what I mean) for a couple of weeks before I dove in.
<<Pauses to insert an addiction trigger warning before I forget>>
I finished it in a few days, and have mixed feelings.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir (hereafter, “FLB”), is not easy to read. The writing is fine, outstanding in places. What makes it a difficult read is the story, the real-life story, it tells. Addiction is ugly, and Perry doesn’t hold back. He’s brutally honest about the downward spiral, the relapses, and addiction’s affect on him and those around him. It can be dark, and disturbing.
Unfortunately, it’s a story that needs to be told. I suspect if one addict said they sought help because they read FLB, Perry would be thrilled and glad he took the time to relate his story.
As a Friends fan, I was hoping for a little more insight into life behind the scenes. There’s some, of course, because a decade is a long time. Friends made Matthew Perry and the other cast members very, very wealthy. It also scratched that itch for fame that Perry long sought. It has to be included, and was in bits and pieces. Probably not enough for a big Friends fan, of which there are many.
Reading online reviews of FLB shows many seem taken aback by accounts of lots of sex and partying. Why this would be a shock to anyone is beyond me. He’s a good looking guy with a ton of money and raving fans. A Hollywood star is not unlike a rock star or professional athlete in how people fawn over them. So yes, of course he made out, got laid, and attended parties.
There’s a few “kiss and tell” points that I won’t share due to my “no spoilers” policy. Just don’t read about the book online because some of his more well-known participants have publicly rebutted.
One thing surfaced throughout the book that contributed to the difficult read, and it had nothing to do with story. FLB is in dire need of a good editor. The timeline jumps around quite a lot, and sometimes the transitions are hard to follow. There are repetitions in the writing that get annoying, and should have been addressed by a good (or even marginal) editor.
Perry is a good writer. The man is intelligent and wrote screenplays, he can definitely write. Any book-length manuscript (and some blog posts…) will benefit from good editing. The last fourth or so of the book felt rushed. Again something an editor could have addressed.
I’m glad I read Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir. Painful as it was, it definitely shows addiction is horrible, and it demonstrates the rich and famous have their demons just like we all do. We’re all human after all.
If you are a giant Matthew Perry fan, or feel that Chandler Bing isn’t just a sitcom character, you may not want to read about the near-death slide someone you like and admire takes into life. If you want a touching, often emotional and difficult real-life story–and can get past the editing frustrations–by all means give it a read.
Read other reviews here:
Amazon reviews for Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir
Goodreads reviews for Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir
Buy Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir on Amazon
