Book Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Tales from the Café

Some topics and genres simply cannot get tolerated by my writing stomach, no matter how much I try, and I try, and I try...One is the science-fiction genre which I approach highly cautious. Once in a while it may happen to like some books written in this vein, but I don´t remember exactly which one was the last that I really enjoyed. The other one has to do with time travel that my very mathematical and practical mind simply cannot cope with easily.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a sequel of a previous book featuring a café where one can visit under specific conditions in order to turn back in time to meet for a limited amount of time the loved ones who died. One of the condition is that those loved ones have visited the place previously. Another is that the visit is short, just ´before the coffee gets cold´. As in the case of many nostalgic time travel books, one cannot do anything in the past in order to change the course of events.

The book - which I had access to in audiobook format - includes three stories of longing for beloved relatives that disappeared in tragic, sometimes brutal conditions. At the beginning of each a short round up of the Café´s infolvement with time travel is repeated which does not make too much sense. Also, the writing is relatively easy and simple, and this is not a compliment, but I can only perhaps blame the translator.

As for the topic, the way in which the stories were written did not appeal to me at all. There are a couple of moral dilemma of the characters, especially when it comes to sharing aspects of the daily life and the decisions took - and some lies surrounding the circumstances of the people who died. But, otherwise, everything there is anything really impressive or literary significant about the stories and the topic.

As someone who lost a couple of very significant people in my life starting with an early age, I never had the feeling, urge or need to want to meet them again though. Life is short, try to humbly appreciate the presence of other humans in your life but why things are happening and how and why those we love are disappearing out of our lives is not a reversible process. Thinking this way is a very good protection against despair and helps to move further on with my/yours too/ life. I don´t want to change anything from my past, just want to live every moment of the present in its genuine uniqueness. 

Rating: 2 stars (The evaluation covers both the writing, as convened through the translation) and the topic