Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a delightful magical realism novel. It isn’t grand, but it is impactful. Following the legend of a café in Tokyo, that customers can travel back in time so long as they return before their cup of coffee gets cold, the novel explores the themes of regret, hope, love and more. It’s wholesome, endearing, and left me in tears more than once.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Non-Spoiler Book Review of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
One of my missions as a reader is to engage with more translated texts. I don’t have much experience when it comes to translations – I’m about 75 pages into Les Miserables after 9 months, and that’s about it. And while I’m glad Before the Coffee Gets Cold was translated from its original Japanese, I can’t help feeling like the beauty of the rhetoric was lost.
I’ve seen people say the Japanese version is lyrical. That isn’t the case with the English edition. In fact, besides being mundane and repetitive, there were certain sentences and passages throughout that I thought could have been worded better while getting the same essence of the original work across. At times, this became jarring. I’m also left wondering if the story is as repetitive in its original language as in English. I’m led to believe it is, as that’s more an issue of the structure of the story than translation. That’s to say, the repetitiveness got old real quick. Especially the constant reminder of the rules the patrons must follow in order to travel back in time – stating it once or twice would’ve been enough, so over four times feels useless and annoying. But, this is a small thing I’m happy to overlook.
The main reason this book landed at 3.5 stars for me is the narrative. When you’re following multiple character’s POVs, it’s inevitable that some will stand out and others won’t. Believe me, it hurts to write that as someone currently writing a book with 4 POVs, but it’s just a fact. Personally, I didn’t care all that much about Fumiko’s journey back in
time. On the other hand, the story of Hirai and her sister left me in tears. Maybe that’s because I have a little sister and could relate. But I also found the final journey, that of café workers/owners Kazu and Nagari heartbreakingly sweet. As for Kohtake, hers and Fusagi’s relationship is sweet and sad, but didn’t stand out the same.
It’s my understanding that this story is an adaptation of a play script Kawaguchi wrote. I think that watching this as a play, or even having a readable play instead of a novel, would have been more successful for me.
Would I recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold? Yes. If you’re looking for a short, quick read with a touch of magic, this is for you. I don’t tend to gravitate towards magical realism, but this book pulled it off. I’ll be continuing on with the series, I’m just waiting on my library loan of Tales from the Café to arrive.
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