Readers of any kind would somehow crave for a good lighthearted book once in a while. This is set in a quaint coffee shop in Tokyo that has the power to take one back to the past and just with that, what's not to love?
Before the Coffee Gets Cold is about the lives of some of the people who came to a coffee shop called Finiculi Finicula in Tokyo with the hopes of going back to their past. I know the book's cover has the question "What would you change if you could travel back in time?" but the thing is, while you can visit the past, there is actually nothing you can do to change it. Here's why.
Too many rules
Going back to the past in the coffee shop is not as simple as it seems. People didn't just walk in and order it. There's a set of protocols that they need to know and follow.
Rules like you can only visit and interact with the past if the other person has visited the cafe, nothing you can do in your visit to the past will change the present, there is only one seat that will take you to the past and the time limit is you have to get back before the coffee gets cold.
It's valid enough to ask what's even the point with all those rules but with the four stories in the book, it will be easy to understand why people would grab on to the little bit of chance of knowing and living the past one more tine.
The gift of knowing
As mentioned, there's really not much point going back to the past if there's nothing they can do to change the present. However, the gift of knowing what could have been or what really was has great impact to what the future could be.
In the book, we have a girl wanting to go back to the day she broke up with her ex-boyfriend, a wife wanting to know more about her husband before he lost his memory, a sister seeking to make ammends and a mother wanting to meet her unborn child (this though travels to the future). They all have different stories but the chair somehow made the similar effect on them which was a change of heart.
"It just takes heart. And if the chair can change someone’s heart, it clearly has its purpose."
In conclusion...
This book is a simple but a sweet read. This does not take you to the depths of the literary world - however, it will make you feel short waves of emotion and is very much interesting enough to keep going. This is a book that I would happily recommend across all ages because it's easy enough to understand and does not contain anything NSFW.
If you're looking for a light read, then I would say give this one a try.
No comments
Post a Comment