Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

My review on Goodreads

I wanted to give this book a higher rating, because the idea at the core was so compelling.

The central concept -- that you can't dwell too long in the past without losing your ability to take action in the present -- is strong. And it's well-examined here by way of various relationships that take place partly in a coffeeshop with one magical seat. Anyone can sit there, when it's temporarily vacated by the ghost who occupies it, and go back in time for a short while. But if they linger too long, they'll become the resident ghost.

The book then follows a variety of people who wait for their opportunities to time-travel, even though one of the rules is that you can't change the present by going back in time. It's a lovely book in terms of food for thought.

It's clear the that author is a playwright. For one thing, the structure of the stories themselves make that obvious. The various couples whose relationships are explored enter and exit the cafe much as actors would on a stage. Each is given a distinct section of the book, feeling very much like a play where the lights would go down and back up.

Characterization is primarily done by describing what clothing each individual is wearing, again giving the impression of a play, in which much of the fleshing out of the character would be done by an actor. This detracted somewhat from the overall reading experience for me. But I do think it would make a phenomenal play or movie, because again I think the author's ideas were excellent.

The other thing that sort of ruined this book for me as a reader was that I think it needed re-editing after translation. There's a very serious "tell, not show" problem in the writing, where information is unceremoniously barfed onto the page in a very disappointing way for me as a reader.

I'm not going to put spoilers into this review. But for me, the couple dealing with Alzheimer's was the most poignant. Unfortunately, one of the most meaningful moments in the book was just plopped onto the page, the emotional reveal dumped out, all magic explained matter-of-factly, and then reiterated in case it wasn't spoiled enough the first time :( The disappointment was doubled down, gah.

I suspect this is an issue of a translator being hired to translate a fully-edited book, and not doing the work of an editor who crafts novels into sharp prose. It was probably well-edited in Japanese and then translated. But it hurt me as a writer and reader, to have such a nice book de-crafted in this way.

If this work is ever treated with a movie adaptation I will definitely check it out.