Before The Coffee Gets Cold

“At the end of the day, whether one returns to the past or travels to the future, the present doesn't change.”

I finished reading Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshizaku Kawaguchi a mere few moments ago, and as I ruminate on the novel, I thought I should write about it as the details remain imperceptibly fresh in my mind.

Before The Coffee Gets Cold is set in a quaint, mysterious café named Funiculi Funicula, concealed in the vibrant and busy Tokyo metropolis. The café is known for an urban legend, that it allows customers to time-travel, albeit only under a very particular set of rules. These rules state that (1) the only people who you can meet while in the past are those who have already visited the café,

(2) nothing you do in the past can change the present, (3) you can only travel to the past if you are seated on a specific chair, and lastly (4) if you do not return to the present before your cup of coffee gets cold, then you are doomed to replace the resident ghost that meanders around aimlessly in the café.

Divided into four parts, each section elaborates upon a person who decides to undertake the risk of time-travel, despite having the awareness that it would make no impact on their present circumstances. One details a woman who returns to the past in hopes to meet her ex-lover, another tells us the story of a wife who travels back in time to meet her husband before he loses memory of her due to his Alzheimer's disease, the third chapter recounts a distraught woman who mobilizes time-travel to meet her deceased sister, and the final tale is perhaps the most different, as a pregnant lady who is well aware that she will not live to see her child, travels into the future to meet her daughter.

What I found really artfully written were how all the characters shared an interestingly serendipitous connection with the other, and I found all those connections, although briefly described owing to the short length of the novel, still wholly fleshed out and developed. Another thing that really engaged me and transported me to the setting of the novel was its delightfully descriptive nature. The atmosphere of the café is palpable through the pages, from the aroma of coffee emanating from steaming hot cups, to the charming pieces of decoration that dot the interiors of the Funiculi Funicula. The melancholia that brews in the desperation of the many people we meet is deftly written, and to be expressed in such short vignettes is definitely a reflection of the writer's prowess. Moreover, the novel was written in a very simplistic manner, which I think only added to its candid approach on the ever-changing landscape that is life.

Although I truly enjoyed the novel, I find it very difficult to write any more on it. I believe it's because its the sort of the book that can be understood only until you have delved into its pages, and experienced being an onlooker in the happenings of the extra-ordinary basement café concealed in the buzzing city of Tokyo, and the ordinary lives of those that are irreversibly intertwined with it.