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A review by archaicrobin
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
2.0
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
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