Has anyone read it and does the tone shift beyond the first 50 pages? So far, it comes off like he’s writing with the voice of his false self with no awareness of that and no attempt to delve beyond the obvious “oh yeah I’m one screwed up guy.” I don’t even know what possessed me to buy this as I’m not a fan of his. I guess I was hoping for something insightful from someone who has been through a lot of ups and downs in life and had unique experiences. Instead, it just seems like a big self-pity-fest and humblebrag, sometimes an outright brag, with a bit of class clown thrown in. He sounds like an arrested adolescent. Like he has to mention his $20 million penthouse and he is constantly complaining about his parents then saying, “oh but my dad is my hero.” The timelines don’t add up either, it’s a bit confusing and makes me skeptical about the accuracy of some of the things he’s claiming.
by franknelsonyes
41 Comments
It doesn’t change. It’s one note the whole way through.
Are you talking about Commodore Matthew Perry, the American sailor who forced the Tokugawa Shogunate to open Japan up to foreigners in the 1850s? I used to be really interested in sailing and the Age of Exploration and so I read both of his books, his own memoirs of the expedition to Japan and his private diaries from the period that were published after he died, and I don’t remember anything about a penthouse…
Have you got to any of the parts where he starts having a go at Keanu Reeves for no reason yet?
I thought it was just awful. Struggled to even finish it.
Not only did he come across as a sad, lonely, unredeemable person; but there was barely any good Friends details in it!
Would not recommend.
Also: did you know that Matthew Perry likes to smoke? If not, buy his book and he will tell you every 4 pages.
Listened to the 4-min sample on Audible, which was *more than enough* for me. I’d love to be wrong, but it just sounded like the kind of celebrity memoir that uses substance abuse confessions as a way to seem interesting (and cash in on their adoring fan base), since the person isn’t attached to any major projects at the moment, and their day in the sun has likely passed for good.
I was really disappointed. I understand that he’s gone through some really difficult things, but I just didn’t like the way the topics were handled. Every part of the book seemed negative. Even when he got to really incredible things that happened, he would rush through it and the story would become negative again basically immediately.
I could tell the cut of his jib when I saw him on a talk show. He was telling the host his book was out-selling Bono’s memoir, even in Ireland!
It sounded like Trump on 9/11 saying that HE now had the tallest building in lower Manhattan after the towers fell.
Pure arrogance and bravado.
Wow I didn’t expect everyone to hate on this book. 100% negative review here. I know to skip this book if i was ever tempted by a sale.
I appreciate the warning. Sometimes I like celebrity memoirs and other times, they reveal dysfunction in a way the author hadn’t intended.
If you’re looking for a good listen, I recommend Mel Brooks’ “All About Me!” He narrates the audiobook and goes through his whole life. It’s good.
Based on what you said you were looking for, I liked both [the watchmakers](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59149593-the-watchmakers) and [the boy in the woods](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59145167-the-boy-in-the-woods?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=AGi812O9zs&rank=3) amazing stories of survival and when attitude and outlook feed resilience. I listened to the audiobook through Libby and borrowed them for free from my library.
If you want celebrities I also liked Demi Moore’s autobiography. It was a page turner that wasn’t full of bravado. She went through a lot. Geez and Molly Shannon’s- David spades – Chrissie hynde. Good luck!
Edited to add more memoirs.
Sounds like the book is exceeding my expectations.
I saw the book at a grocery store roughly 1 month ago. The shelving was blocking the bottom line of the title, allowing me to fill I the blanks. “Matthew Perry: Friends, Lovers and you’ve already stopped reading this haven’t you”
Yep, doesn’t change. I’m a big friends and Matthew Perry fan, but I struggled to get though it. And honestly, I actually like him less after reading it.
I wish he would have written his first chapter as an op-ed and then walked away.
I waited forever to get it from the library, and listened to him narrate. I did finish it and have mixed feelings. The more I reflect on it the less I like it.
The first chapter on illness and overwhelming gratitude was touching. But it contradicts itself, the rest of the stories read like *everything bad happens to me, I’ll find the terrible in the good. It’s all my fault but I’ll never actually change.*
There were some cool stories in there. I enjoyed the prose. I liked learning about the Friends cast, how they united for their salary negotiations and hearing how the set dynamics and collaboration worked (though Perry seems to think he’s responsible for every funny moment of the show, eyeroll). Some behind-the-scenes details were neat. Bruce Willis sounds like a riot. Perry’s work for drug courts sounded cool.
I wish it would have been a cool look at a unique life, more details about what it’s like to be a celebrity or something. Or maybe it could have been a story about struggle and overcoming demons… but it just wasn’t. He basically just lays out all of his problems and highlights that he’s only being propped up, and barely, by hired help.
It reminded me of like the cocky small town hero regaling everyone with tales of his debauchery back in the day. Like he doesn’t realize that these bully stories aren’t funny? Or maybe he does and he’s just proud of being an asshole?
It’s nice that Perry wasn’t *ashamed* to tell everything he did. But I wanted him to be more… grounded? It didn’t read like he was being vulnerable. There was a weird scene where he tries to make out with his buddy (a man), and he never brings up homosexuality again. I wondered why he brought that up. With a few exceptions he tends to talk about women like they’re furniture, there might be some exploration he could do there. But nope.
Maybe the editors could have pushed back on these themes. Or his PR team should have stepped up. Or maybe they couldn’t have because, by his own admission, he sounds like a real shit to work with.
I was surprised to find him so unlikable, honestly. It’s not the addict memoir aspect, it was that he constantly repeated how successful he was or how many millions he made. He said it so many times it started to seem he was trying to convince the reader.
If this were written more introspectively I think the experience would be different. I felt gross after reading it and totally without hope that he will remain clean.
I really regret purchasing this book. It definitely didn’t get better.
He was so arrogant. I read comments about how misogynistic he was, and how he treated all woman like objects and blew that off, as I think people can be overly sensitive to these things. But turns out all those people were right, he seems to only see value in how attractive a woman is.
He goes on about how he was an amazing tennis player. Until he moved to California and then turns out he was average. But repeatedly throughout the book after that, he went on about how he could have been an elite tennis champion.
What he spoke about his medical events (pancreatitis and his colon) were factually incorrect. And the way he talked about the medical professionals that saved his life ( and dentists etc) made me feel a bit ill to be honest.
I wasn’t a huge fan of his but did love friends. I wish I hadn’t read this book as now when I see him I cringe
I finished it, honestly the tone doesn’t change. His memoir is not great literature, and, as others have noted it’s often incredibly vague ( probably because he doesn’t remember). He is very sad and lonely. I guess it was interesting to me to realize how miserable he was and still is despite all the money and fame.
Here’s my problem with it. He says he thinks his calling is to help people with addiction but I can’t see how he is offering help in any way or how reading this book would help an addict. His issues are completely unresolved.
Don’t get Anthony Kiedis’ book then. It is basically 400 pages of “I didn’t have good parenting, but I got a lot of blow jobs.”
I’m a fan of Friends and Chandler is my favourite character. I listened to the episode on the Celebrity Book Memoir Podcast and that was enough for me. His attitude towards women was especially disappointing.
I’m happy I didn’t end up buying it… I watched the Diane Sawyer interview and thought it was all kinda just fluff talk. He still seems unwell.
I do like at the end of the interview, however, he said something along the lines of, ‘you know I’m in a bad place again if I ever say that I’m cured’. I really appreciate that statement coming from an addict. It shows self awareness, at the very least. I hope he gets better some day.
DNF while you still can. It doesn’t get better; it in fact gets worse. I’m 100% convinced they had a ghostwriter most heavily massage the first 50-100 pages, but beyond that it’s mostly Matthew’s actual voice/headspace b/c that’s when it gets insufferable, repetitive, and also a lot less eloquent (ie: b/c I don’t think he wrote the beginning–the prose was too rich, the metaphors and theming too strong). It’s like a bait & switch.
I’ve rarely encountered a memoir where I struggled to finish to this degree, and came out of it disliking a person so much. What’s bizarre to me is that he thought this was a good idea! And everyone around him enabled him to actually publish it. That tells you a lot.
What I really want to know is what Craig Bierko thinks lol.
This reminds me of how I felt reading Anthony Kiedis’ bio. Just a terrible human being who repeatedly made bad, destructive, selfish choices.
What’s up with the Audible reviews? Has a 4.5 star rating but looking through the reviews they are almost universally 1 and 2 stars
People who blame others for everything drive me nuts. A massive mood Hoover and woe me character. Everything is someone else’s fault
It’s like when BoJack tried to hijack Dianes version of his memoir
It’s honestly even more bleak as an audiobook in his own voice. The tone you’re hearing in your head, it’s spot on.
I got 30 pages in and couldn’t stand the way he spoke about women and stopped reading.
Sooo I got this as a library book which I have since returned, so I don’t have exact quotes. But I feel like no one has mentioned the 🚩 at the end where it’s basically a sales pitch to date him and have his children. Did I misinterpret that part….?
I had a literature teacher who used to say if you’re 50 pages in a book and it’s still not good, you can put it down.
Call me a cynic, but my take on this whole thing is that his career is on the rocks, and he’s become irrelevant. He’s grasping for a bit more notoriety, money, or both. Laying all this out for the world is cringy af but his tale of woe is all he’s got left to sell.
Isn’t this dude basically Bojack Horseman in real life?
I watched one of the long form interviews he did on his press tour (Diane Sawyer, maybe?) and I thought 1) addicts are unreliable narrators even when they’re sober (distorted memory and distorted interpretations… also shame and lying) 2) he hasn’t been sober long enough to fully grasp what a bad idea writing about all these other people might be.
I was married to an alcoholic and they often confuse being sober with being healed. They know staying sober is a process, but not being a selfish asshole is also a process. They aren’t always on the same track. He has clearly worked on sobriety but he’s still an asshole.
I really didn’t like it. He also kept referring to his comedic genius, that he is one of the brightest comic minds of a generation, always the funniest person in every room, everyone was jealous of his comedy etc etc. Which… I don’t know, I don’t quite buy. He’s definitely a very talented person and yes very funny, but doesn’t even come to mind when you think of the top comedic minds of his generation. And he consistently mentions how he is single-handedly responsible for the way an entire generation of Americans speak (the whole, ‘Could I be any more blah blah’). Which also seems way overblown. I’m not American, so maybe it’s true I guess, but just seems like ego talking.
If anyone is looking for a masterpiece of an actor autobiography, “A Life in Parts” by Brian Cranston blew my mind. I havent even watched Breaking Bad
Dax Shepard won’t interview him because he is pretty sure Perry is still using pretty regularly.
I read one (and apparently the only) complimentary review when it came out and I wanted to read it for what the review promised was insightful commentary on addiction and recovery with a side of celebrity name dropping. Picked it up at my local bookstore and saw the $30 price tag and put it down immediately. Grabbed it at Sam’s Club for $17 a few weeks later and was really disappointed I spent even that much.
He clearly is a dry drunk (meaning sober but not recovered) if he is clean at all, which I sincerely doubt.
It is common to hear that addicts stop maturing at the age when they begin using and it couldn’t be more clear than in this case. He is a 15 year old in a 50+ year old body. The millions of dollars he has spent on rehab might as well have been lit on fire because he does not seem to have developed any self-awareness or accountability for his own actions. It’s so devastatingly sad. As a mom, it is my biggest fear that somehow I might make a mistake and send my child off on this rollercoaster but the reality is that he has chosen not to get off the ride despite having every resource possible at his disposal including apparently caring parents. Addiction is a disease 100% but he is hiding behind brain chemistry to an extent I’ve never seen.
It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever read. I hope he gets well.
Anyone who knew him in Ottawa or played tennis against him back then know/knew what a total piece of shit he was.
It might be the first celebrity memoir I’ve read where I came out liking the celebrity less as a result. Despite being open (I think he really believes he was being an open book), and Saint how he screwed up his life, his lack of self awareness was staggering. There was no real introspection there, just him talking about his addiction and relapses.
At one point he complains when a rehab facility kicked him out after catching him with drugs on the premises despite his current sober state, he does not see himself in the wrong there.
I listened. It was so slow and slurry I had to do 1.5x speed. I felt like he still hasn’t grown up.
Still complaining about an unaccompanied plane ride over 45 years ago? C’mon, man!
Also women seem like interchangeable accessories to him. They are all “so gorgeous” and “so smart.” He could easily have married any one of a half dozen of them! Really?!
Cursing out a dentist who helped you also seems petty and vindictive. Grow up.
Swearing you never worked on Friends while high when you were gulping a handful of pills a day? I don’t believe you.
Can you tell I didn’t care for this one? 😉
Edited for typos.
Perry has always been overinflated by his ego.
He wants pity but also lashes out because of his deep burning anger at himself for failing where his coworkers succeeded.
It comes off as the guy who says “you can’t be mad, I’m being honest”
I got the strong impression from the Friends reunion that he was not good at dealing with fame, and had massive issues with self doubt. I remember him saying something about if he read a line and no one laughed, it devastated him, even when the audience laughed at every other line. Perhaps he’s only able to see himself as successful based on what he’s earned in his career, which would explain why it sounds like he’s constantly bragging.