Matthew Perry’s memoir 'Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing' is an interesting read with, as you would expect, liberal doses of humour. It is also an entertaining look at many of the TV shows and movies Perry has appeared in and the numerous people who he has worked with. The memoir also covers his childhood growing up in Ottawa and later moving to Los Angeles. And when it comes to the “Big Terrible Thing” — Perry’s term for alcoholism and addiction — he doesn’t hold back describing his fight for sobriety for much of his life. And it is this part of the book that must have been difficult to write but which can provide a lot of good and hope helping others who battle drugs, alcohol and cigarettes — and those who care for them.

Perry’s attempts to deal with alcohol, drugs and cigarettes have been numerous. He has spent millions of dollars trying to get sober, been to thousands of AA meetings, gone to rehab numerous times and “detoxed over sixty-five times.” He knows how fortunate he is to be alive describing the time he was staying in a “sober living house” and had to be rushed to hospital for emergency surgery where he went into a coma for 14 days, aspirated into a breathing tube causing pneumonia and then his colon exploded. Perry was given a two per cent chance of making it through the night. After the surgery he needed to wear a colostomy bag. During another procedure Perry’s heart stopped for five minutes where he was given CPR — and eight of his ribs were broken.