Characters in this adult novel resolve regrets through short bursts of time travel

by Shuyler Clark

The plethora of time travel rules helps ground Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s debut novel, which is structured in four chapters, each focusing on a different character. Image credit: Amazon.com

In Tokyo, a cafe has gained renown for its promise that visitors can travel through time.Though many make the pilgrimage to see this for themselves, the abundance of rules turns most of these people away. This month’s selection, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, follows four people who visit the cafe over the course of a summer in hopes of easing their regrets through time travel.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s debut novel adapts his stage play of the same name. Each of the four chapters follows a different character in their quests to meet someone at a different point in time. Although characters recur across the chapters, each installment works as a standalone story. Cases of repetition between chapters, such as constantly repeating the rules of time travel, make it feel more like a stitched-together short story compilation than a novel.

Although re-explained far too often, the plethora of time travel rules helps ground the story — including the rule requiring that travel must be completed before the coffee gets cold. Time travel can be a finicky plot device, easily falling apart if the writer does not take all outcomes into account. The cafe’s rules help avoid such pitfalls, especially considering the visitor cannot change the present when they time travel. This creates a mostly consistent timeline that focuses on character development and spares readers confusion.

Unfortunately, the time travel is not entirely without faults. The inclusion of extra rules in the later chapters muddles previous ones. The final chapter, while the most heartfelt, also has the most inconsistencies in this regard. The book’s theme is also vague until Kawaguchi states it outright in the final page. This culminates in an ending that is the literary equivalent of leaning one’s head out a moving car window and slamming it against a road sign.

Kawaguchi also interrupts the narrative with information that is not wholly important. For instance, the reader learns early on that one of the characters has Alzheimers. Kawaguchi delivers more information about the disease than is needed for the character’s arc. Given adults are the novel’s intended audience, the over-explanation of minute details seems unnecessary.

Despite the flaws, Before the Coffee Gets Cold provides an intriguing time travel system with compelling characters. Readers who enjoy heartfelt narratives will appreciate Kawaguchi’s message.

“Reading Between the Lines” columnist and SCN board of directors member Shuyler Clark

Shuyler Clark is a graduate of Stockbridge High School and Lansing Community College. When she is not reading or writing, she can be found snuggling with her birds.