Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

Description

Matthew Perry recounts a life in which professional success and private crisis advanced side by side. Beginning with childhood and family instability, he follows his pursuit of recognition into the role of Chandler Bing on Friends and the fame that followed. Neither achievement nor celebrity resolves the emptiness beneath that ambition, while alcoholism and addiction lead through decades of concealment, hospitalization, rehabilitation, and renewed attempts at sobriety. Perry also reflects on his castmates, romantic relationships, and the peculiar experience of becoming publicly identified with a beloved comic character while struggling away from the camera. Directly addressing others who face addiction, the memoir combines entertainment history with an account of illness, self-deception, survival, and the difficult work of extending solidarity from lived experience.

Themes