Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

Matthew Perry is the author and protagonist of Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. His memory and perspective shape the memoir, creating a subjective narrative point of view. Although primarily known as an actor, Perry is also a writer of television and film screenplays. Unlike the authors of many celebrity memoirs, he did not employ a ghostwriter for the project. The book recounts key episodes in Perry’s life from his birth in 1969 to the time in which he is writing the memoir, at age 52. The author explores his feelings of abandonment after his parents’ divorce, his pursuit and achievement of fame, his failed romantic relationships, and his life-threatening addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs. Written from the perspective of newfound sobriety, the memoir is dedicated to fellow “sufferers” of addiction.

Perry achieved fame at 24, when he was cast as Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends. In his memoir, the author describes being pigeonholed by the role for the rest of his career. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that Chandler’s part could have been written for him: “It wasn’t that I thought I could play Chandler, I was Chandler” (76).