Before the Coffee Gets Cold-Toshikazu Kawaguchi Review

 This is yet another book I have decided to purchase after plenty of positive reviews on social media by accounts that I follow and whose opinion I respect and share. It was advertised as a wholesome, short book about humans and seemingly simple but rather profound human stories. After finally getting my hands on it, I was able to read it in two sittings, as it is a rather short book, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Although flawed in its final execution, this was a  wholesome story about second chances that we want but cannot always get, different kinds of relationships and love. Although at times I did feel like with ‘The Midnight Library’ in the sense that the story would be just a motivational ‘hang in there’ kind of message, Kawaguchi does offer more insight and depth than Haig. I also found the characters a lot more likable, as they were flawed and looking for second chances, only to find them in the most unexpected places and ways. We have a businesswoman coming back to try to save her love life, a woman trying to come to terms with her husband’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, a sister trying to make amends and a mother trying to meet her daughter. While some of these were more successful than others, I did enjoy all of these people and their stories. They all read almost like tragic characters at start, but they all get some kind of closure and answer to their questions, even if it is not what they and us as readers had expected. Overall, all of their stories speak of love and hope, albeit a bit too shallowly for my taste. The novel overall reads like a collection of short stories or vignettes more than a coherent novel, both in terms of story and form. For that reason, as I said, I did enjoy them, they did not reach me as much as maybe a single story with more chance to fully develop and grow would have.

The premise is that in Tokyo there is a café that allows their visitors to go back in time for a while, but under some specific rules that they must follow. I will not reveal too much about the rules as it might be considered a spoiler as they play a big part in the story and the decisions the characters make, but I will say they are quite interesting. Novel consists of four chapters and a different person’s decision to come back in time is revealed and discussed. Although each chapter tells a different story, they are interconnected not just through the space they all occupy, but through their stories as well.

My two biggest issues with the novel are its repetitive nature and the ‘tell, don’t show’ way of writing.. In every chapter the already established rules are repeated by the waitress working at the cafe and the same conclusions are met. For some chapters this does make sense, as the person going to the past has not heard them before, but for some it does not, as it is obvious that they would know. This could be explained by saying it is a kind of ritual that she would pour them tea and tell them the rules, but it got a little bit annoying reading the same thing four times. They are extremely consequential to the rest of the book and I understand their importance, but I did not need it repeated so often. In regards to the second point there are a lot of situations in which simply explaining and telling the story would be sufficient. But, the author then had the need to give us an explanation of what it all means and how the characters must have felt. After a while, it felt quite clunky and took away from the overall feeling of the story.  I have read that this was originally written as a play, which could explain these two issues I had. Additionally, I have read it in translation, which could add to the somewhat unnatural dialogue at times.


Overall, I wish that more was done with the premise, but I found ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’ a wholesome, short book about humanity stripped away from the pretences that looks into what really matters to us. At times clunky dialogue and repetitive nature took away from the overall message of the story, so I rated this ⅗.

The sequel ‘Before Your Memory Fades’ has been published, but I think I will wait for more reviews to come out before reading that one. Did you read this book? What were your thoughts? Did I forget anything important? Let me know!

source: https://www.panmacmillan.com/