Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade
AuthorPaul Howard
IllustratorAlan Clarke
Cover artistAlan Clarke
CountryRepublic of Ireland
LanguageEnglish
SeriesRoss O'Carroll-Kelly
GenreComic novel, satire
PublisherPenguin Books
Publication date
October 2006[1]
Media typePaperback
Pages304
ISBN978-1-84488-090-4
823.92
Preceded byThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 
Followed byThis Champagne Mojito Is The Last Thing I Own 

Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade is a 2006 novel by Irish journalist and author Paul Howard, and the sixth in the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly series.[2]

Title

The title is a reference to coitus interruptus: Sydney Parade is the last DART stop before Sandymount, where Ross lives. Many other such phrases are known, e.g. "getting off at Redfern" (Sydney, Australia);[3] "getting off at Edge Hill" (Liverpool);[4][5] "getting off at Haymarket" (Edinburgh).[6]

Cover

An initial cover design featured a naked Ross holding his "sympathetic pregnancy" bump, a parody of Demi Moore's famous 1991 Vanity Fair cover. Penguin manager Michael McLoughlin vetoed that, and illustrator Alan Clarke produced a new version showing Ross wearing a Leinster Rugby shirt.[7]

Plot

Sorcha is pregnant; Ross begins to experience a sympathetic pregnancy. His mother, Fionnuala, becomes a successful chick-lit author, but her realistic depiction of financial crime causes suspicion to fall on his father's affairs. Ross and his friends invest in Lillie's Bordello, a Dublin nightclub.[8]

Reception

Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade was the surprise winner of the Galaxy Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards.[9][10][11][12]

It was the best-selling book in Ireland for 2006, selling 39,339 copies.[13]

It was listed among the shortlist of 50 for the Irish Book of the Decade prize for 2000–10.[14]

In her work The Undecidable: Jacques Derrida and Paul Howard, Clare Gorman analysed the relationship between Ross and his mother in the book, noting that "Ross has a pathologically intense relationship with her that he denies and represses by insulting her at every opportunity."[15]

References

  1. "Rich pickings for readers on dark evenings". Independent.ie. 2 September 2006.
  2. Davenport, Fionn; O'Carroll, Oda (1 September 2007). Dublin encounter. Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781740598293 via Google Books.
  3. Blackman, John (15 February 2012). Best of Aussie Slang. Momentum. ISBN 9781743340202 via Google Books.
  4. Deiss, Richard (7 August 2013). The Cathedral of the Winged Wheel and the Sugarbeet Station: Trivia and Anecdotes on 222 Railway Stations in Europe. BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 9783848253562 via Google Books.
  5. "21 euphemisms that readers grew up with". BBC News. 18 May 2013.
  6. "get off at..., v. — Green's Dictionary of Slang". greensdictofslang.com.
  7. "D4's favourite son is going on display – and it's like, ort actually?". Independent.ie. December 2012.
  8. Maher, Eamon; O'Brien, Eugene (4 September 2014). From Prosperity to Austerity: A Socio-Cultural Critique of the Celtic Tiger and Its Aftermath. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780719091681 via Google Books.
  9. "An Post Irish Book Awards » Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade by Ross O'Carroll Kelly".
  10. "Coming of age for Irish Book Awards". Independent.ie. 3 February 2007.
  11. "When fiction lite lays the golden egg". Independent.ie. 11 February 2007.
  12. Walsh, Caroline. "McCabe takes top prize at Irish Book Awards". The Irish Times.
  13. "An epic savours a Costa win". The Irish Times.
  14. Kennedy, Eoin Burke. "Irish book of decade shortlist unveiled". The Irish Times.
  15. Gorman, Clare. "Northside, southside, comrades all: when Ross O'Carroll Kelly met Jacques Derrida". The Irish Times.
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