Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. A Memoir by Matthew Perry. Pub. Headline Publishing Group 2022.

Everybody who watched the sitcom Friends in the 90’s will know who Chandler Bing is. The fast mouthed quick witted flatmate of Rachel, Joey, Monica, Phoebe and Ross who at one stage made a million dollars an episode. David Schwimmer suggested they bargain for salary and conditions as a team, and it worked a treat. They made 245 episodes. That is a lot of money, an addict can play havoc with that.

Matthew Perry is not a lot different to his character Chandler but with some startling and at times unnerving addictions and behaviours. He is a lonely boy. A boy who feels not wanted and is scared of committment and failure, stemming back to his family life and he uses alcohol and drugs to try to ease the pain. Tonnes of the stuff and his story is harrowing and you can find that out for yourself but there is some brilliant advice, insight and demonstration of the mind of an addict.

On the way thorough life both before and after he became a STAR and a celebrity he has interesting experiences with Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Tricia Fisher(Princess Leias sister) and other celebrities that will have you wanting to know more.

But his approach is very critical of himself and his addictions and frailties “I was a complete mess of a person – selfish and narcissistic”. He went into Rehab 23 times and even tried hypnosis and god as a cure but read about this yourself.

He narrates the book like Chandler quick witting his way around and the best advice he offers, for me that is, “if you spend too much time looking in the rearview window, you will crash the car”

One of the best memoirs and celebrity stories I have ever read. Understand your addictions.