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The Orange Mocha-Chip Frappuccino Years

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The Orange Mocha-Chip Frappuccino Years
AuthorPaul Howard
IllustratorAlan Clarke
Cover artistAlan Clarke
LanguageEnglish
SeriesRoss O'Carroll-Kelly
Genrecomic novel, satire
Set inDublin, 2000–2001
PublisherThe O'Brien Press
Publication date
7 March 2003
Publication placeRepublic of Ireland
Media typePaperback
Pages208
ISBN0-86278-809-9
823.92
Preceded byRoysh Here, Roysh Now… The Teenage Dirtbag Years 
Followed byPS, I Scored The Bridesmaids 

The Orange Mocha-Chip Frappuccino Years is a 2003 novel by Irish journalist and author Paul Howard, and the third in the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly series.[1][2][3]

The title refers to the Sue Townsend novel Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years, as well as the orange mocha frappuccino drink ordered by three male models in the film Zoolander.

Background

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Howard wrote The Orange Mocha-Chip Frappuccino Years in autumn 2002, intending it to be the last novel in the series. The idea of making Ross an estate agent came to Howard after shopping for a house himself and being offered a modest house for IR£750,000 by a very young estate agent.[4]

A Moscow publisher aimed to publish The Orange Mocha-Chip Frappuccino Years in Russian translation, but Howard struggled to explain the Irish cultural references. The translator wanted to change Ross to a basketball player instead of rugby; the Russian edition was never published.[5]

Plot

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Statue of Ross

After dropping out of college and being kicked out of home by his parents, Ross finds work as an estate agent for Hook, Lyon and Sinker.[6]

Reception

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Writing in The Irish Times, Aengus Collins reviewed it negatively, saying "Ross is a character with considerable comic potential, but regrettably little of this potential is realised here. One of the problems is that Ross is a fool living amidst like-minded fools. Too much of the reader's time is spent in the restricted company of Ross's largely identikit friends and acquaintances. […] There is little to pull the story forward, and the telescoping of Ross's emotional development, such as there is of it, into the final four pages of the book is simply lazy."[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: Orange Mocha-Chip Years by Paul Howard: Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, an O'Brien Press book". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Ross O'Carroll-Kelly - Books - the Orange Mocha Chip Frappuccino Years". Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ O'Carroll-Kelly, Ross (12 September 2012). Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: The Orange Mocha-Chip Frappuccino Years. The O'Brien Press. ISBN 9781847174420 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Howard, Paul. "Paul Howard: Ten things I've learned writing Ross O'Carroll-Kelly". The Irish Times.
  6. ^ Gorman, Clare (1 June 2015). The Undecidable: Jacques Derrida and Paul Howard. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443883597 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "Ross loses the plot en route to Tallaght". The Irish Times.