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A review by micksland
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 stars
The premise is very intriguing: a café in Japan offers visitors the ability to travel back in time. They can use this trip to try to correct a past mistake or visit a deceased loved one, but they must return to the present before their coffee gets cold. This leads to a series of very beautiful and poignant vignettes.
However, I do think some things held this back from being a 5-star read. Primarily, the prose is very stilted. I'm not sure if this is an artifact of translation or an intentional stylistic choice on the part of the author, but I found it to be very simplistic and repetitive, when the premise would have benefitted from more poetic prose. Also, the short length prevented some characters from fully developing.
I understand that this novel was originally based off a play, which explains some of the stylistic choices. I would love to see the original performed live to see how it compares to the novel version. I might also enjoy reading the sequel to see if the prose changes at all, since I believe the sequel is an original work and not based on a play.
The premise is very intriguing: a café in Japan offers visitors the ability to travel back in time. They can use this trip to try to correct a past mistake or visit a deceased loved one, but they must return to the present before their coffee gets cold. This leads to a series of very beautiful and poignant vignettes.
However, I do think some things held this back from being a 5-star read. Primarily, the prose is very stilted. I'm not sure if this is an artifact of translation or an intentional stylistic choice on the part of the author, but I found it to be very simplistic and repetitive, when the premise would have benefitted from more poetic prose. Also, the short length prevented some characters from fully developing.
I understand that this novel was originally based off a play, which explains some of the stylistic choices. I would love to see the original performed live to see how it compares to the novel version. I might also enjoy reading the sequel to see if the prose changes at all, since I believe the sequel is an original work and not based on a play.