A Drinking Problem just like Grandpa’s

Mikkel Jensen’s article “A Drinking Problem just like Grandpa’s” is a close reading of a single short story from Douglas Coupland’s 1994 short story cycle Life After God. The story, “Little Creatures”, portrays a gloomy drive a father takes with his child up to meet the child’s grandfather, referred to as “the golf-wino”. In this story the journey is represented as two parallel narratives of develop-ment as both the father as well as the child faces some truths either about themselves and/or the world which neither of them is ready for. Seeing how the short story chronicles a drive from an urban center through a western Canada countryside, the article comments on – with specific reference to pastoral literature – how this story marks Coupland’s departure from idealizing rural locations.

米克尔·延森（Mikkel Jensen）的文章《与祖父如出一辙的酗酒难题》（A Drinking Problem just like Grandpa’s），是对道格拉斯·科普兰（Douglas Coupland）1994年短篇小说集《上帝之后的生活》（Life After God）中单篇短篇小说的细读式分析。该篇题为《小生灵》（Little Creatures）的短篇小说，描绘了父亲携子女驱车前往拜见被称为“高尔夫酒鬼（golf-wino）”的外祖父的阴郁旅程。在这篇故事中，这段旅程被呈现为两条平行的成长叙事脉络：父亲与子女均需直面各自尚未准备好接纳的关于自我与/或周遭世界的真相。鉴于该短篇小说记述了一段从城市中心驱车穿越加拿大西部乡村的行程，该文章以田园文学为具体参照，评析了这篇故事如何标志着科普兰摆脱了对乡村空间的理想化书写。