Most of us are likely familiar with Matthew Perry from his role as Chandler Bing on the cult classic show, FRIENDS. FRIENDS was THE SHOW when I was in middle school, because I am old, and I remember watching it weekly and going to school and talking about it with my peers. (I must admit that Seinfeld and Frazier were my favorites, but I did enjoy FRIENDS a great deal.) Matthew Perry did a great job bringing Chandler Bing to life, and that character is much beloved by fans all over the world. This memoir does provide a few behind the scenes moments from the years of filming FRIENDS, but that is not the sole focus of this book. If that is what you are wanting to read it for, you may be disappointed. Matthew Perry does a deep dive into his life, discussing his entrance into acting, some of his other work, people he has dated, and his long struggle with addiction. I was not personally aware of his struggle with addiction during the filming of FRIENDS, because I was in middle school, but I did learn about it later on. I hate to see anyone struggle with mental illness and addiction, because it is a damaging and cruel disease. I was also unaware of his near death experience, and I cannot believe I missed seeing that in the news. I'm happy to see that he has made some changes in his life and things are looking up for him.

I very much enjoyed this book, as much as one can enjoy reading about someone else's struggles. I think he did a wonderful job of being open about his struggles, and maybe that will help someone else who picks this book up that is struggling with some of the same things. Sometimes, people think "that could never happen to me" about the negative impacts on your body, but this book shows you that it can catch up to you, no matter who you are. I also appreciated his respectfulness in talking about his relationships. This wasn't a salacious tell-all. I also really enjoyed his humor that came through on every page, regardless of how dark the issue at hand was. If you are a FRIENDS fan, or someone who enjoys celebrity memoirs, this would be a great book for you. If you are someone who reads addiction and mental illness books, this would also be a good book for your library. I really enjoyed reading this, and I cannot believe it took me so long to get to it.