Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

In a little small cafe in Japan, you can return to the past. As long as you follow the rules, you get to fix things you didn’t before, however it won’t change the past. What’s the point then? Well, you’ll see when you follow the characters as they embark on their journeys into the past.

I really wanted to adore this book. Unfortunately, I ended up only liking it a little bit. As far as the premise was fantastic, I found the actual book quite underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it and some of the stories were very heart-warming but overall, I thought it could’ve been executed better. I’m not sure whether it was down to translation, but I found the dialogue unnatural at times, and while I understand that it is literary fiction of sort, the descriptions were a bit too long and bare.

I got my hands on this book because, well… social media. Hyped up by others, I decided to give it a go, and I really liked the idea of the story that you can go back to the past. But once I began reading, all the rules involved with it seemed a bit tedious to me. Some things were left unsaid until late in the story, for about 75% of the book, I wondered why everyone makes a big deal out of going back to the past and not having a lot of time there, because why couldn’t they just go again? It was only explained towards the end of the book that they could only go back once and personally I think it would make a stronger story if the reader knew from the beginning that that was not possible.

The dialogue was another issue. Maybe due to translation, it seemed very distant and not human-like, which made it difficult to feel for the characters. The stories were interesting but I just wasn’t able to relate to them. The descriptions varied from between lengths, some of them being too short and shallow, some of them too long. I also noticed a lot of repetitions throughout the book - they seemed unnecessary however I understand that it would work if you were to read the stories separately.

When it comes to the characters, I managed to get to know them at some level, but I’d like to get to know them more. I really enjoyed the backstories of all of them, but I didn’t get to know them on a personal level as much as I’d like to, most likely due the third person POV. It made the stories a little more distant and I feel like the first person POV would create a more intimate reading experience, especially that the explored topics can be difficult.

Nonetheless, I found the book an easy and cosy read. Some parts were heart-warming and hopeful, and it made me think twice about how I treat people around me. It was easy to follow and all the characters were likeable. I would recommend it as a short and snappy reads in between other, longer books.

Rating: 3.5