Review of “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Short and sweet story, so here’s a short and sweet review. Before the Coffee Gets Cold gave me the general feeling I wanted out of a book today—something heartfelt and warm. It was exactly what I needed in between sections of reading A Little Life, and I'm so glad I decided to spontaneously pick this up.
The book consists of four brief vignettes of customers utilizing the time-travel mechanics for a quaint basement cafe. The cafe manager and staff are well acquainted with the various rules imposed on this time-travel, alongside the ghost that frequents the space, and there’s a general theme that, though time-travel is allowed, nothing changes in the present.
How many of us haven’t dreamt of time-travel ourselves? The series of stories explores different relationships amongst the cafe staff and regulars to speak of varied emotional struggles. Nostalgic and hopeful, the book feels like a haven from busy life, and I find myself quite liking the types of media that have to do with cafes/restaurants as places of rest (yet also simultaneously serving as catalysts for emotional journeys). This book gave me the same feeling as the Japanese show The Midnight Diner does, in which the location itself is almost it's own little special sanctuary, and you're only seeing glimpses into the lives of a colorful cast (I suppose this would also apply to the Hotel Del Luna K-Drama, though I haven’t watched it through completion). I wonder why these types of quiet stories are so prevalent in East Asian media, but perhaps we choose to experience them for the same reasons we like ASMR videos or study-with-me’s: pockets of time meant to just be comforting. There’s a beautiful message here on how we process grief or sadness or hardship, and how our regrets now may be soothed by perspective, By the time I finished, I was left feeling satisfied and whole.
The book is rather slow paced, but I actually really enjoy these types of stories, in which you're practically a guest as well, sitting there as the steam rises, the smell of coffee surrounding you in a warm haze. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is I would call a relatively simple, yet healing sequence of four stories.
