Tales from the Cafe: 2 (Before the Coffee Gets Cold)

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One issue as with the first book is that the author seems to think the readers have short term memory and tends to remind us time and again about the rules of the cafe.

second story: a woman devoting her life to care for her husband who has dementia. i don't have a problem with this one by itself, but after reading the other stories, there is a theme here. But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the cafe, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . . Life in Japan on the strength of this novel seems even stranger than I had imagined, even after learning about Godzilla, apparently if you are working for a friend in their small business and they die, you can just take over the business, and raise their child as your own and nobody will complain or cause you any problems, not the law, the banks, or even any grandparents. However, I am so glad I was able to read the second book the third time I tried reading it. I would say the writing is more accessible and well etched out than the first. I hate (HATE!!!!) or "personally do not like books" where women die because of a pregnancy. Let alone for a pregnancy. Especially on purpose. Especially in books written by men. It’s just not my cup of tea.If it is not possible to change the present no matter how hard you try while in the past, then why bother?” TW: Death of sibling, life threatening pregnancy, death while giving birth, death of parent, Alzheimers, husband forgetting his wife. I was disappointed by this collection of short interconnected stories. 1.5 stars so it will be 2 stars.

Why can life be fulfilled only by running the family inn you hated for 15 years, after your siblings death. Seems more like guilt than actually finding happiness to me.As Kawaguchi is a playwright, the writing is clumsy and awkward at times despite the brilliance and romanticism of its pivotal scenes. The Japanese preference of overt sentimentality can be overwhelming and difficult to digest — the writing is sometimes abrupt and poor with detailed descriptions of tourist destinations or scenery that does not further the plot. However, the shortcomings are counteracted with the tantalizingly slow and gentle narrative progression, which focuses on the themes of human emotions and the human condition rather than dramatic, suspenseful subplots. The characters - Kei, Kazu, Nagare - all seemed like the same person and were basically interchangeable because their personalities were that indistinct and irrelevant. The Alzheimer’s storyline felt especially pointless - the wife wants to talk to her husband about the letter he wrote, that was handed to her in the present, that she refused to read, but she wants him to tell her about it in the past? Just read it in the present! And the future storyline - what, she just “knows” that she’s going to die in childbirth? Gimme a break. Before the Coffee Gets Cold resists neat genre classification. The tags of fantasy, translated fiction, novel, play and realism all seem applicable. Kawaguchi’s novel was originally written as a play before it was adapted into novel form.