Thursday, June 01, 2023

Short Takes: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

 


Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is a memoir detailing Perry's addiction problems, fears, insecurities, successes, and repeated failures. The memoir ends on a very hopeful note despite the multiple relapses inflicted upon the author's ravaged body for almost his entire adult lifetime. 

I found the book to be fairly well written but not as motivational and moving as I expected it would be. I did, however, come away from the book wishing all the best for Matthew Perry and sincerely hoping that he will be able to remain sober for the rest of his life. The man has been through almost unimaginable mental and physical hardships, and I suspect that many people fighting problems like his will be very moved and motivated by reading the memoir. I salute Mr. Perry for that reason.

I would rate this one about 3.5 stars out of 5.  

4 comments:

  1. Hi Sam, so glad to see your post and I recently read Matthew Perry's memoir too. Agree many will be helped by his book. One thing that struck me is Perry's breathtaking honesty and what I really admired is not just the courage he has to be that honest but he talks well of others. He shares his own secrets but not the secrets of others and you don't always get that in a memoir. I too wish him a full recovery and that he stays sober.

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    1. I agree, Kathy. It was refreshing to see Perry take full responsibility for his actions. I think maybe he was even a little too forgiving of at least a couple of the women who passed through his life. I just hope he is now able to break that cycle of relapsing every two years or so. I really hope so.

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  2. I don't think this is for me as I struggle to read about people destroying themselves with addictions... it makes me feel very frustrated. Not that I don't wish them well with defeating the problem and I have the same hopes for MP as you. Nice to see a post from you, Sam!

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    1. Hi, Cath. Feeling a lot better and hoping to do some short reviews for a while to see how that goes.

      I felt much like you coming into the book, but one thing Perry did for sure was leave me with a better understanding about addiction and how some people seem to suffer from it more than others. That's, though, exactly what makes me nervous about his future.

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