Author Guide · Memoir
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For ten seasons, from 1994 to 2004, Matthew Perry played Chandler Bing on Friends, one of the most watched sitcoms on television. For much of that time, he later wrote, he was addicted to painkillers and alcohol. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, published in November 2022, is his account of that addiction, up to the burst colon in 2018 that left him in a coma for two weeks and in hospital for five months. A year after it came out, on 28 October 2023, he died at his home in Los Angeles, aged 54, and the book returned to the bestseller lists. This guide covers his 1 key book, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 1 key books · 2022–2022 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Matthew Perry wrote one book: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022), a memoir about his life, his years on Friends and his addiction, with a foreword by his co-star Lisa Kudrow. Start with the book or the audiobook, which he reads himself. Read on for what it covers.
Where to Start with Matthew Perry
If you want his own account of fame and addiction
→ Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022) — the 2022 memoir.
If you prefer to listen
→ Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022) — the audiobook, read by Perry himself.
1 Matthew Perry Book
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Published by Flatiron Books on 1 November 2022, with a foreword by Lisa Kudrow. Perry writes about his relationships, his time on Friends, his addiction to Vicodin after a jet-ski accident in 1997, multiple stays in rehab, and the rupture of his colon in 2018 as a result of his opioid use. The book puts what he spent trying to get sober at millions of dollars. It was a bestseller on publication and again after his death in October 2023.
How to Read Matthew Perry’s Book
The memoir is his only book, so there is no order to worry about. Chapters about Friends sit alongside chapters about addiction and recovery; the book is as much about the second as the first.
Perry reads the audiobook himself. He also wrote and starred in a play, The End of Longing, first staged in London in 2016, about a man who drinks too much; it covers some of the same ground in fiction.
A reading path
1. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022), in print or e-book
2. The audiobook, read by Matthew Perry
3. His play The End of Longing (2016)
The years · 1969–2023
Quick facts about Matthew Perry
- Known for
- Matthew Perry was the actor who played Chandler Bing on Friends and wrote openly about addiction in his 2022 memoir.
- 1969
- Born in Williamstown, Massachusetts
- 1994
- Friends begins
- 2023
- Dies in Los Angeles, aged 54
- Born
- 19 August 1969, Williamstown, Massachusetts; grew up partly in Ottawa
- Known for
- Chandler Bing on Friends (1994–2004)
- Play
- The End of Longing (2016), which he wrote and starred in
- Book
- Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022)
- Died
- 28 October 2023, Los Angeles, aged 54
- Legacy
- The Matthew Perry Foundation, set up after his death to help people with addiction
The red mark is 2022: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, published a year before his death.
How Matthew Perry Writes
The memoir is written in a conversational first person, with jokes and asides set against plain descriptions of illness, above all the burst colon in 2018 and the months in hospital that followed.
He is specific about addiction: the drugs, the stays in treatment, and what he says sobriety cost him. In an interview around publication he put that figure at “probably $9 million or something”.
Friends is one thread among several. For other memoirs about fame and its costs, see the guide to Jennette McCurdy, Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights, and the reading list of books about Hollywood below.
Watch
Matthew Perry on his memoir
Matthew Perry talks to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show in 2022 about Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
Frequently asked questions about Matthew Perry’s book
How many books did Matthew Perry write?
One: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022). He also wrote a play, The End of Longing (2016).
What are Matthew Perry’s books in order?
There is only one: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir, published on 1 November 2022.
Where should I start with Matthew Perry’s book?
With the memoir itself, in print or as the audiobook he reads himself.
What is Matthew Perry’s most famous book?
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, his only book.
What is the book about?
His life and his addiction to alcohol and painkillers: his childhood, his years on Friends, many attempts at recovery, and the colon rupture in 2018 that nearly killed him.
Who narrates the audiobook?
Matthew Perry reads it himself. The book has a foreword by Lisa Kudrow, his co-star on Friends.
Is it worth reading if you are not a Friends fan?
The book is mainly about addiction and recovery, not the show, so it can be read without knowing Friends.
What did the memoir say about Keanu Reeves?
In the first edition Perry asked why actors such as River Phoenix and Heath Ledger had died young while Keanu Reeves had not. After criticism he apologised and said the name would be taken out of future editions.
Is Matthew Perry still alive?
No. He died on 28 October 2023 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 54. The Los Angeles County medical examiner gave the cause as the acute effects of ketamine. In August 2024 US prosecutors charged five people, including two doctors and his assistant, in connection with his death; all five later pleaded guilty.
Footnotes
- Matthew Perry — Wikipedia
- Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing — Wikipedia
- Matthew Perry was candid about addiction. His words are now part of his legacy — NBC News
- Matthew Perry to remove Keanu Reeves insult from book — The Hollywood Reporter
- Matthew Perry’s memoir returns to No. 1 after his death — Yahoo News
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
— Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022)
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