This isn’t a ‘Friends’ tell-all. It’s the life before, the bits during and what came after. It has a respectful amount of references to Friends, the struggles, the best bits, the friendships… but it’s not insightful into the series. It’s not meant to be. It’s candid, open, honest, funny, and desperately sad. I listened to the book being narrated by Matthew himself, I’m not sure if I’d have been so engaged with it if I was reading the pages.
The truth of it all is, many people fell in love with Chandler Bing, but they absolutely would not have liked the man behind the character and how he was treating women, abusing himself and obsessing about himself at the exact same time. It takes a huge amount of courage, compassion and humility to tell it all like Matthew has done in the book. Did I like him at the end of it? Not very much. In reality, this book is Chandler without his Monica. And you will probably not view a Friends episode in quite the same way every again after reading this.
About the Book
“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.
In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.
About The Author
Was an American-Canadian actor, comedian and producer. He gained international recognition in the 1990s for playing Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), and earned a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role.
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