Reviews

This is a tough one. The guy is obviously extremely broken, but I feel like his focus is a little... askew...?

I think he’s broken himself with his drug and alcohol use and he’s gone back into his past to try and find the reasons why he is broken. That’s how it seems. I’m no expert.

I just feel like if you go to enough AA meetings and pay for enough therapy you’ll end up being able to point a finger at a few perfectly reasonable explanations for your issues.

Only maybe those things aren’t all that terrible UNLESS you drink and do drugs... then they compound themselves and become more and more entrenched.

That’s my perspective.

The guy is a mess. He’s written a book that does nothing 1) to explain alcoholism beyond vague elements, 2) illuminate his life particularly clearly, 3) detail ways of helping to deal with addiction .... but it does manage to do the one thing that he says he was trying to do... instil hope.

See, Perry is very much a woe-is-me sort of guy. He’s quick to say, ‘I had all this amazing stuff, but then I decided to drink because I’m sick.’ Which is fair enough, alcoholism is a disease, I’m not saying it isn’t. But what he ends up saying, without really saying it, is that there is help out there. That no matter who you are, you’re not unlovable. You can be on top of the world and still feel crappy. What you have or don’t have has very little to do with your mental health.

You can get strength from a book like this. Because it removes the argument that keeps a lot of people struggling. I’d be happier with money. Nope. I’d not need to drink if I was with a supermodel. Nope. I’d not be so lonely if I was popular. Nope. If Perry is right, all these issues are almost worse the more of each you have. Because it doesn’t fix you. You fix you. Or at least, you can try to - with the right help.