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

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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. despite the characters in this story being given a “second chance” to approach situations/people, the overwhelming feeling of knowing nothing can be done just hurts so badly, and i don’t want to delve any deeper into that, considering it would spoil way too much, but it sits in my chest, and it feels SO heavy. it felt so real, and being faced with reality sometimes feels a little too overwhelming, but as i mentioned before, the manner in which the author approaches this is so soft and so gentle. i felt safe Why does one have to wait three years to marry someone, when that person didn't even try to fight for the relation. Why is a stunningly beautiful, feminine, loving, caring, intelligent, successful woman waiting for her ex who left without even communicating where they stand? Not to be mistaken, the concept is nice, but the execution sloppy. Also after the first story the newness of the premise starts to wear off (despite some arbitrary rule changes all of the sudden) and things like the weirdly specific descriptions of people, focussed solely on the colour of their clothes, started to catch my eye.

Why can life be fulfilled only by running the family inn you hated for 15 years, after your siblings death. Seems more like guilt than actually finding happiness to me. With faces both familiar and new, Tales from the Cafe follows the story of four patrons who visit to take advantage of café Funiculi Funicula's time-traveling offer and revisit moments with family, friends and lovers. Each one must face up to the past to move on with their lives.Despite a tantalizing premise the execution of time travel with ever added on new rules is sloppy. And the underlying morale of the four stories is basically highly conservative in my opinion. Life in Japan on the strength of this novel seems even stranger than I had imagined, even after learning about Godzilla, apparently if you are working for a friend in their small business and they die, you can just take over the business, and raise their child as your own and nobody will complain or cause you any problems, not the law, the banks, or even any grandparents.

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! While this book is slow-moving and heavily reliant on dialogue rather than descriptions (something that I really, really enjoy but others may not like), I absolutely fell in love with the story and the little lessons woven into each narrative. It was bittersweet, endearing, and touching to see people from all walks of life try to reconnect with loved ones where they learn that they might not be able to completely fix the past, but they can learn from it and be touched by it. 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. I was disappointed by this collection of short interconnected stories. 1.5 stars so it will be 2 stars.

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I was at Schuler’s bookstore for the first time and thought Before The Coffee Gets Cold would be a great little book to read while I was spending all day in the coffee shop attached to the bookstore. 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.