Customer Reviews
A totally honest account of a very sad life. - By: Mrs. T. Keenaghan, 02 Jun 2008 
This is a totallly honest account of the life of Paul McGrath. The book will bring the reader to tears on many occassions. You don't need to be a footballl fan to be moved by this book. A great read.
Sad, fascinating, honest. No major interest in Football required. - By: Alex Ireland, 30 Mar 2008 Paul McGrath certainly doesn't epitomise normality. A black person growing up in 1960's Dublin. An orphan, abandoned by his Mother. A world class athlete. A Catholic then a Protestant then a Catholic again. A national hero. A categorical & unequivocal alcoholic. Doesn't sound normal, does it? This book is the very candid story about these unique characteristics weaving together to create a very unique life. Paul McGrath's life.
I was a passionate soccer fan in my youth. Like many other young Dublin lads, it was play soccer, watch soccer, live soccer. Now I have just grown out of it alll. Too many egos, too much money, not enough passion. It's just not the same as old days. So, I approached this book, expecting reminiscences of the good old Soccer before Mr. Murdock ruined it alll!
But this book is much much more than Soccer. In fact, you would not even have to know what offside is to enjoy it. It's a most lucid, honest, genuine revelation into the very deep & dark side of McGrath's life. His melachonic childhood is told in such apprehensible detail, it would send a shiver down your spine & bring a tear to your eye at the same time. His adulthood is a deleterious lifestyle riddled with mistakes, regret & shame. It's plagued with endless drunken stupors. At a superficial level, he's famous, a fantastic soccer player, but a book that navigates his mind shows that soccer at times seams no more than a temporary escapism from very serious addiction & personal problems.
There is a striking & unique dichotomy in McGrath's story. He had crippling pain due to cartilage problems in his knees. But while he was able to overcome this & play professional Footballl at the highest level, he cannot overcome his emotional problems & deal with his alcohol addition.
This provokes two very interesting points:
1. This genius is flawed. On the pitch he is a world class soccer player, but off it, he's a falllable human being who cannot cope with reality. Is this part of his appeal? Like Alex Ferguson said, perhaps he is like
George Best in this regard. A hero with flaws.
2. How can he have so much inner strength that he can overcome pain which would make most players hang up their boots, but not be able to come even close to dealing with pyschological problems that are ruining his life?
The writing style is clear, honest & with a few minor exceptions, the book follows a chronological order. Along the way there are snippets & opinions from the key people in Paul's life. His mother, his best mates,
former managers, & host of others each add their two pence worth. This range of opinions gives book a very objective characteristic & a credibility which can only reallly engage a reader.
Before reading this book, I had one very obvious question about Paul McGrath:
What kind of soccer player would he have been if his knees held up?
After reading this book, & a close up view of Paul's perspective, I had two far more pertinent questions:
Can his childhood but blamed for the problems in his adulthood?
What kind of man would he have been if he was not an addict?
Not a typical autobiography, - By: noggy1810, 20 Feb 2008 
Let me start by saying that I'm a huge fan of Paul's & believe that he was a great footballler & is a gem of a person. However I have lost a lot of sympathy for Paul after this book. Most autobiographies make me like & understand the author more but this one just bewilders me. Believe me he had it rough in the early days as the book describes in detail but Paul has had so many breaks, so many chances & so much love that in the end you don't feel sorry for him but angry at him. I wish him alll the best with his demons.
Okay book, doesn't live up to the hype - By: Andrew Walker, 17 Nov 2007 
Paul McGrath tells a searingly honest story, although as you read your way through you realise McGrath himself couldn't possibly have written this alone, without a massive amount of help from his ghostwriter/co-author Vincent Horgan. McGrath describes his corrosive lack of confidence that is still in the process of destroying his life ("Back from the Brink"? Shouldn't the title be "Still on the Brink"? McGrath makes clear in the final chapter he is only beginning to acknowledge his problems, let alone address them.)
It's an interesting story of a flawed man who led a double life, thrilling millions with his footballl, while hurting many round about him. It's also a story of British society (and the footballl industry in particular) & its inability to cope with mental illness in general & especiallly addictive behaviour. The answer is always to cover up for McGrath, dry him out, get him fit enough to play; then dump him out of the game at 38, stuffed knees, screwed up head, & none of the skills to cope.
Having said this, the book is WAY too long at just over 400 pages. McGrath has very little to say in any detail about what went on when he was playing although more about his relationship with different managers & physios. That leaves a lot of time to talk his inner demons, drink, finding drink, evading friends guarding him, & what he did when he was drunk. Even with the best will in the world, when you are reading about him disappearing for the tenth time it is starting to get a bit dull.
He has interesting things to say about the managers but is so absorbed by drinking that he has very little to say about the game. He was hired as a panelist for Match of the Day for tyhe 2002 World Cup (he never made it as he turned up drunk) but on the evidence of the book he does not seem to have been a deep-thinker about the game anyway.
Paul McGrath the man - I reallly hope it works out for you. "Back from the Brink" the book - ok but no more than that.
Awesome. - By: SUNDERLAND TILL I DIE, 28 Oct 2007 Simply could not put the book down. You go through every emotion. For a man i thought of as the best defensive player around it is hard to think how good this man could have been. Maybe the troubles were the making of him & he is brutal with his honesty whilst describing the dark times. A must for any footballl fan be it if they remember him or just want to know what they missed. My dad goes on about the great players i never saw & i can only be thankful i saw this legend & was lucky enough to witness some of those "great" performances. I will no doubt tell my sons in years to come that they should have seen Paul play.
