Scan barcode
perusinghannah's review
3.0
Well, this was heartbreaking.
As someone who grew up watching Friends and still has it on a loose, more or less constant loop, Matthew Perry's passing was one of those celebrity deaths that hit me more than others have. And because of that, I put off reading his addiction-centered memoir until now. I thought it would be too sad, and while I was right about that, his death also made this book feel like it's told by someone who just can not read the room. Let me explain.
Perry had a sense of humor that could be extremely dark, and while that would've worked perfectly in his memoir had he still been alive, it just continuously made me flinch now that he's passed. Turns out joking about your brushes with death isn't quite as funny when you're no longer around, and where the book could've used the levity, the humor that was meant to bring it just brought more heaviness. Is that his fault? Obviously not, but it certainly did influence my reading experience, as did the hopeful tone he had towards the end of this.
It is, however, not the reason I knocked off a set of stars - that was for the lack of depth to this, and also the weirdly shallow way he chose to speak on past relationships and the women in his life. While I do appreciate the openness with which he spoke about his addiction over the years, it felt very repetitive in the discussions about its hows and whys, and I wish he'd gone a little deeper instead of the "and then" structure he utilized throughout. As for how he speaks about the women he claims to have cared for, it just was not at all reflected in the vain and misogynistic language he used speaking about any of them, and it bugged me.
All in all, I maybe should just not have read this after all. Yet I did, and here we are, and since I don't believe in the glorification of the dead, I feel like three stars is fair. Your mileage may vary.
As someone who grew up watching Friends and still has it on a loose, more or less constant loop, Matthew Perry's passing was one of those celebrity deaths that hit me more than others have. And because of that, I put off reading his addiction-centered memoir until now. I thought it would be too sad, and while I was right about that, his death also made this book feel like it's told by someone who just can not read the room. Let me explain.
Perry had a sense of humor that could be extremely dark, and while that would've worked perfectly in his memoir had he still been alive, it just continuously made me flinch now that he's passed. Turns out joking about your brushes with death isn't quite as funny when you're no longer around, and where the book could've used the levity, the humor that was meant to bring it just brought more heaviness. Is that his fault? Obviously not, but it certainly did influence my reading experience, as did the hopeful tone he had towards the end of this.
It is, however, not the reason I knocked off a set of stars - that was for the lack of depth to this, and also the weirdly shallow way he chose to speak on past relationships and the women in his life. While I do appreciate the openness with which he spoke about his addiction over the years, it felt very repetitive in the discussions about its hows and whys, and I wish he'd gone a little deeper instead of the "and then" structure he utilized throughout. As for how he speaks about the women he claims to have cared for, it just was not at all reflected in the vain and misogynistic language he used speaking about any of them, and it bugged me.
All in all, I maybe should just not have read this after all. Yet I did, and here we are, and since I don't believe in the glorification of the dead, I feel like three stars is fair. Your mileage may vary.
mkakoske's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Addiction, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Grief
nightwithbooks's review against another edition
It's hard to rate someones live, but I see you Matthew Perry! We have the same brain
katiebaxter's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0