What would you change if you could go back in time?
Don’t we all have moments in life we regret or wish we could change how it all played out? Yearning if only we could go back in time, perhaps things would be different or maybe not!
OVERVIEW:
Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) Before the Coffee Gets Cold set in an old-fashioned café in a small Tokyo lane gives a person this chance – to travel back in time!
REVIEW:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold explores the age-old concept of time-travelling resting heavily on the question, if you could time-travel, who would you want to meet?
The story is set in a century-old secluded basement café ‘Funiculi Funicula’, a café known to transport people back in time. As a reader, I wondered if I was signing up for a science fiction disguised as magical realism? Titles and blurbs can be misleading, can’t they? Suffice to say I wasn’t.
As I flipped the pages, I felt a sense of soul-binding calm, reminding me achingly of Japan – the Japan I have always visited through books and music. There is no fancy contraption, no unnecessary chatter or an elaborate out of the world setup to transport you back in time. The backdrop is simple – a café, precisely a chair in the café that allows you to go back in time. However, there are strict rules one must follow, and just so you know, one cannot change anything and must return to the present ‘before the coffee gets cold’.
The book is divided into four segments, each focusing on different characters and their individual lives yet interconnected through the café. The storyline is steady with no plot twists apart from emotions that lingered for long, even after I turned the page.
Despite the theatrical feels, the writing flows smoothly, which is marvellous given it was initially written as a play and is dialogue-driven, added to that it is a translation. And still Kawaguchi’s characters manage to convey their depth as they sift through time with the inherent knowledge that nothing would change, and yet choose to travel. Quite contrary to the regular time-travel novels I have read.
‘It is so much easier to conceal sadness from a stranger, or from someone you don’t trust.’
― Before the Coffee Gets Cold
The novel is nothing grand – no big words or drama. It is simple and character-driven. And therein lies the beauty. If you are expecting some philosophical epiphany then maybe you might not find it interesting enough. Nevertheless, the book is like an old blanket – comforting, peaceful, and warm.
All said and done, if you want to experience surreality right in the middle of mundane life, give this book a chance and get lost in the fantasy of moving time-travel tales.
RATING: 4.1/5
PUBLISHER: Picador
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