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

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While in the third story a man thinks of a gynecologist as a woman’s domain, where no man should venture. And an independent woman learns that the secret to happiness is paying heads to her family’s wishes and giving up her own business. In Alzheimer’s disease, the subtle and sporadic deterioration of patients brain function will be a very arduous phase in their partners, and their family members life, and it is one of the rare situations in Medical Science where the spouse and family members suffer more than the patient (The author depicted it perfectly through the characters Fusagi and Kohtake.) everything" as in each woman Kawaguchi wrote only has one purpose in their life. should've done my research and seen that this book was written by a man. Apparently, this book was written as a play first, which could explain why so much of it feels so over-explained and bluntly delivered. Much of what I found annoying could fill a role as stage directions in a performance piece, but it really jars in a novel. The fact that there time travellers must abide by a number of rules gets mentioned maybe ten times in the first section of the book, and the rules themselves get repeated so often that they become mantra-like.

On the surface it looks great, but when you start it up... oh dear. At best the poor thing limps along well under the speed limit, an ominous cacophony of clunking sounds and grinding noises issuing from under the hood. 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.Perhaps if I read the collection which preceded this, 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold', I would have appreciated or understood more about this book.

In true Japanese fashion, the magic realism of the Tokyo cafe is reigned in by a strict set of protocols for returning to the past — as the coffee is poured the guests leave in a “shimmering steam”; they must not leave their allocated seat inside the cafe and can only meet those they have previously seen there, they must also return to the present before the coffee gets cold otherwise they become trapped as a ghost in the cafe. Kawaguchi wanted to impart the importance for all of us to face reality hence the heart-wrenching rule that no matter what happens or how one tries to change the past, it will not alter the present. Kelly, Joseph P. (2020-12-29). " "Before the coffee gets cold" Explores The Interiority of Time Travel". Harvard Crimson . Retrieved 2021-11-27. At times, it was very lovely. My very favorite things are lovely things, and simple, wonderful magical realism is my favorite hard-to-find-done-well genre, and for a while it seemed like this could qualify as being both of those things. Internal monologue: With rules like this I can clearly see why no one time travels. But I love my beloved too much to let it slip.) OKAY🥴 I do not know what happened with the first book. I couldn’t get into it even after trying again. I just had to give it up sixty percent into it every-time.

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But also in Japan it seems that being a ghost is pretty good - you can read books, drink coffee and you even need to go to the toilet - though admittedly only once a day - being dead in Japan seems a pretty minimal change of physical condition, this probably why Japan's population is ageing rapidly - too many people retiring to Japan in the hope of an active afterlife. From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s previous novels, readers will also be introduced to: Why does one have to wait three years to marry someone, when that person didn't even try to fight for the relation. Why is a stunningly beautiful, feminine, loving, caring, intelligent, successful woman waiting for her ex who left without even communicating where they stand? I find the characters not as engaging and interesting even though their stories sound interesting enough. Maybe their stories do not do much for me personally. With simple prose, endearing characters (old and new) and stories that touch your heart, “Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) is an impressive sequel. Though I did enjoy reading the first book in the series, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I must say that this book is an improvement over the first. Not only is the writing more fluid and less disjoint, but the characters are very well fleshed out and the stories are characterized by much more emotional depth and nuance. We get to know more about the café owner and his family and we finally get to know the story of the mysterious woman who occupies the time-travel chair in the café, vacating it only once a day, opening up an opportunity for others to embark on their journeys. Yes, there is a certain amount of repetitiveness (with each of the patrons being reminded of the rules) but that can be easily forgiven on account of how beautifully written these interconnected stories are. This book made me smile and yes, I did shed more than a few tears. I’m eagerly awaiting the third book in the series.