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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