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 development 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.