Tales from the Cafe: 2 (Before the Coffee Gets Cold)

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The short novel arguably occupies a space known as ‘magic realism’ as Kawaguchi adds fantastical elements to the familiar space of the coffee shop. Before the Coffee Gets Cold also speaks to the modern fascination with time travel writing as popularised by H.G. Wells’ novel The Time Machine. Maybe the author is actually a feminist- believer in equal rights for all but it most definitely didn't read like one.

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s previous novels, readers will also be introduced to:But also in Japan it seems that being a ghost is pretty good - you can read books, drink coffee and you even need to go to the toilet - though admittedly only once a day - being dead in Japan seems a pretty minimal change of physical condition, this probably why Japan's population is ageing rapidly - too many people retiring to Japan in the hope of an active afterlife. Before the Coffee Gets Cold' review: A chance to redo the past". CSMonitor.com . Retrieved 2021-09-08. This is your typical time travel in a Japanese coffee shop novel this is not a spoiler, the kind of novel in which this was a spoiler would be a bit more fun I think , apparently it is the sequel to a similarly named earlier novel which I have never read and which I don't plan to read but then again I didn't plan to read this either, so I just can't tell. As Kawaguchi is a playwright, the writing is clumsy and awkward at times despite the brilliance and romanticism of its pivotal scenes. The Japanese preference of overt sentimentality can be overwhelming and difficult to digest — the writing is sometimes abrupt and poor with detailed descriptions of tourist destinations or scenery that does not further the plot. However, the shortcomings are counteracted with the tantalizingly slow and gentle narrative progression, which focuses on the themes of human emotions and the human condition rather than dramatic, suspenseful subplots.

A woman entered the cafe alone. She was wearing a beige cardigan over a pale aqua shirt-dress and crimson trainers, and a white canvas bag. Meet more wonderful characters in the next captivating novel in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, Before We Say Goodbye, releasing November 14, 2023! The coffee-making process is described with considerable sensory detail. If Benjamin Obler updated his 2009 list of the ‘top ten fictional coffee scenes’ for the Guardian then Before the Coffee Gets Cold would easily make the cut. However, I am so glad I was able to read the second book the third time I tried reading it. I would say the writing is more accessible and well etched out than the first. This is a beautifully written novel happening inside a retro cafe where time travel is possible. It has four different stories interwoven together with characters who have their individual existence yet perfectly complement each other.Now, those two complaints aside... honestly, I kind of liked it. This is by no means a great novel, but I found the time travel rules fairly amusing (and frustrating, but it kind of delighted me in that regard as well). Also, I liked the character of Kazu. As a former barista I delighted in her character. A customer comes in and pisses off a ghost and gets herself cursed? Well, offer the ghost some coffee. The ghost is just an annoyance and the customer should have been focusing on the coffee and leaving the ghost alone anyway (This really is how 90% of baristas who work the night crew would act, I assure you. You did something stupid, we would note it for future stories and possibly even post a snarky sign telling customers not to do the stupid thing again). I do not know what happened with the first book. I couldn’t get into it even after trying again. I just had to give it up sixty percent into it every-time.

At times, it was very lovely. My very favorite things are lovely things, and simple, wonderful magical realism is my favorite hard-to-find-done-well genre, and for a while it seemed like this could qualify as being both of those things. Overall I have enjoyed the two books in this series, hopefully if there is a third book the author can just say "the rules were explained" rather than listing them out one by one every single time. Tales from the Cafe is the second lot of short tales from Kawaguchi's 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series, which follows people on a journey into the past (or future) within a magical cafe. There are, as usual, an astounding number of strict rules to follow, but perhaps the most important to remember is to drink the coffee before it gets cold.In true Japanese fashion, the magic realism of the Tokyo cafe is reigned in by a strict set of protocols for returning to the past — as the coffee is poured the guests leave in a “shimmering steam”; they must not leave their allocated seat inside the cafe and can only meet those they have previously seen there, they must also return to the present before the coffee gets cold otherwise they become trapped as a ghost in the cafe. Kawaguchi wanted to impart the importance for all of us to face reality hence the heart-wrenching rule that no matter what happens or how one tries to change the past, it will not alter the present. One issue as with the first book is that the author seems to think the readers have short term memory and tends to remind us time and again about the rules of the cafe.