Literary Scene: Three Memoirs Worth Mentioning

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | December 2022

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir

by Matthew Perry • (Flatiron Books, November 2022)

Let me start by confessing I’m a big Friends fan, so I’m predisposed to liking anything having to do with any of its six iconic main characters/actors. But I also value integrity in book reviews, so I came to Matthew Perry’s book hoping that I would be able to crow about its virtues.

Here’s the good news. It’s a hoot of a good time. Perry has his comic timing working in high gear, though make no mistake—the arc of his life is tragic. He had his first drink at 15, and by 18, he was drinking every day. His troubles with addiction worsened when he got hooked on Vicodin following a jet ski accident in 1997.

At one point, he was taking 55 Vicodin tablets and a quart of vodka just to make it through the day. He also estimates he’s spent more than $9 million trying to get sober. About his addiction, Perry writes: “Not only do I have the disease, but I also have it bad. I have it as bad as you can have it…it’s going to kill me.” Indeed, he’s had 14 surgeries and nearly died several times already, including one incident where his heart stopped beating for five minutes.

This book is more than just a journey to his addiction hell. Along the way, Perry shares his failed romances with Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, Valerie Bertinelli, and his ex-fiancée, Molly Hurwitz. The book also delivers on a bit of behind-the-scenes happenings from Friends, such as how he had a crush on Jennifer Aniston, and how he was so hungover during one episode that he passed out on the Central Perk couch and co-star Matt LeBlanc had to nudge him awake just so Perry could deliver his lines.

It’s a tough read since Perry’s lifelong troubles with addiction are shocking, though his humor and self-awareness is compelling. Ultimately, I have to say: could it BE a more extraordinary tale?

Ryan’s Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Novelist as a Vocation

by Haruki Murakami (translators Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen)
(Knopf, November 2022)

Haruki Murakami’s newest book, Novelist as a Vocation, is a series of essays about literature, writing, and the creative process. Despite the title, it’s not a how-to writing craft book, but instead offers anecdotes about his 40-year career as a famously reclusive novelist. Among other things, the book offers stories about his jazz café, his thoughts on the Japanese school system, the current state of Japanese society, the international publishing world, his personal writing schedule, and his odd, unlikely journey into the world of writing.

As interesting as I find it, I recognize that my reaction is influenced by own career as a writer. I worry that others might find it a bit repetitive and teetering—at times perhaps—on humblebrag. Still, it’s a genuine look into the mind of a creative genius who’s made some of the most exciting stories of magic realism available today.

For Murakami fans, it’s a must-read. For everyone else, it’s a solid maybe.

Ryan’s Rating: 4 out of 5

No Filter: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

by Paulina Porizkova
(The Open Field, November 2022)

For the past few years, I’ve been noticing how much we’ve seen—often quite literally!—of Paulina Porizkova online. Given the attention and occasional controversy about the supermodel’s very public life, I knew I had to check out No Filter, which she wrote after becoming a fan favorite in “Beyond the Edge,” a celebrity competition in the jungles of Panama to raise money for charities. 

While No Filter isn’t a memoir proper, we get a very candid view of her life and thoughts via a series of essays that cover topics such as her husband’s death, aging gracefully, relationships, beauty, reinvention, feminism, and finding one’s purpose in life. 

To no one’s surprise, Porizkova has been hawking her book in the months prior to its release. In an Instagram post where she’s topless and holding a copy of the book over her breasts, she captions, “Yes, I’m baring it all. No filters. This collection of essays contains things I want to share, things I have thought about, things that hold me back, and things that propel me forward. It is all of me. For all of you.”

Porizkova is outspoken and honest in her attempt to bare her soul, but the part that resonates most with me is her early years, from having a Communist childhood followed by the financial blessing of her teen years which began with her appearance on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in 1984. Along the way, it delivers a nostalgia-blast of the 1980s in America. For some readers, that’s the real selling point. For others, it’s her introspective essays on sadness, motherhood, divorce, and self-acceptance.

Ryan’s Rating: 4 out of 5