''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
Ross O'Carroll-Kelly is a satirical fictional Irish character, a wealthy South County Dublin rugby union jock created by journalist Paul Howard. The character first appeared in a January 1998 column in the ''Sunday Tribune'' newspaper and late ...
series.
Title
The title is a reference to
coitus interruptus
''Coitus interruptus'', also known as withdrawal, pulling out or the pull-out method, is a method of birth control in which a man, during sexual intercourse, withdraws his penis from a woman's vagina prior to ejaculation and then directs his ej ...
:
Sydney Parade is the last
DART
Dart or DART may refer to:
* Dart, the equipment in the game of darts
Arts, entertainment and media
* Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero
* Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe''
* Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character
* Dar ...
stop before
Sandymount, where Ross lives. Many other such phrases are known, e.g. "getting off at
Redfern" (Sydney, Australia); "getting off at
Edge Hill" (Liverpool); "getting off at
Haymarket Haymarket may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia
Germany
* Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market)
Russia
* Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...
" (Edinburgh).
Cover
An initial cover design featured a naked Ross holding his "sympathetic pregnancy" bump, a parody of
Demi Moore
Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera ''General Hospital'' (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Bra ...
'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
Leinster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Laighean) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland and the most successful Irish team domestically. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby ...
shirt.
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.
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.
It was the best-selling book in Ireland for 2006, selling 39,339 copies.
It was listed among the shortlist of 50 for the Irish Book of the Decade prize for 2000–10.
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."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Should Have Got Off At Sydney Parade
2006 Irish novels
Novels set in Dublin (city)
Penguin Books books
Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
Fiction set in 2005
Fiction set in 2006