Tales from the cafe

In Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Tales from the cafe, the second installment in the Before the coffee gets cold series, four new customers visit Funiculi Funicula, the small but legendary coffee shop in Tokyo that claims to offer patrons the chance to go back in time. In this story, the reader follows Gohtaro, Yukio, Katsuki, and Kiyoshi, as they navigate friendship, relationships, and family, as well as the lies we tell, the longings of what might have been, and the hope that the future holds. 

I love how this book can be read as a stand-alone, but that you would miss so much about the main characters and their lives that go on in the background if you don’t read them all. Each new story explores a different dynamic with entirely new people—or at least people that haven’t been primarily featured in a previous story before. Whether it’s a relative of a main character or an acquaintance of a former customer from another book, Kawaguchi has a way of telling relatable stories in a number of different and engaging ways, all from fresh perspectives. My favorite character in this book is probably Yukio, who struggles with finding his way in the world and who desperately wants to make his mother proud. 

Each character goes through something raw and real, and somehow they learn something about themselves—albeit through bittersweet circumstances. By the end of this installment, I found myself hopeful for the characters’ lives beyond the book and eager to crack open the next one. I enjoy the bite-sized short story format and how it still manages to paint a bigger picture that relies on the other stories as a whole. It’s rare to find a set of narratives that are short and light, and somehow deep and meaningful at the same time, and Kawaguchi manages to balance all these elements flawlessly. 

The main story beats flow well, and the ending leaves me wanting to return to the world of Funiculi Funicula and the happenings of its new patrons as soon as I put the book down. Whether it’s two lifelong friends, a mother and son, a lover who got away, or a husband accepting a looming tragedy, I was reeled in from start to finish as each story unfolded. I also love how the author compares life and its ebbs and flows to seasons, a reminder that things aren’t always so dark and dire:

“Seasons flow in a cycle. Life too, passes through difficult winters. But after any winter, spring will follow” (Kawaguchi, 256).

One of the messages that seems to shine through each of Kawaguchi’s books is that the perfect ideal of “living life to the fullest” is constantly muddled by our own mortal—and sometimes selfish—desires. Through his narratives, the author addresses questions of why we keep secrets at times, or why we lie for the sake of a loved one’s happiness. But the author understands well that, as humans, if we were given the chance to do it over, we would most certainly take the opportunity to right a wrong, or to say something we wished we said when we had the chance. 

At the heart of each of Kawaguchi’s books lies the things we all have in common, from our struggles to our triumphs in all of our seasons. Tales from the cafe is yet another moving book in a cozy coffee shop setting that delivers a delightful experience from start to finish, all before the coffee gets cold.             

Reference
Kawaguchi, Toshikazu. Tales from the cafe. Hanover Square Press, 2021.