Before the coffee gets cold is a novel probably only a playwright would write. Let me explain. The author, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, is a Japanese playwright who adapted this novel from his earlier 1110 Productions play. Four interlinked stories: "The Lovers," Husband and Wife," "The Sisters," and "The Mother and Child" share unity of place--a basement cafe--and draw from an ensemble of twelve somewhat offbeat, endearing characters.
The cafe called Funiculi Funicula is ancient. It opened in 1874. Basement walls have time-earned patina. It's small: A counter with three seats plus three two-seater tables. The concession to warm summer temperatures is a single large-bladed ceiling fan--no A/C. But the cafe's renown came from a magazine article headlined, "Uncovering Truth Behind Time-Travelling Cafe." The author of the article didn't turn up anyone who had actually time-travelled while at Funiculi Funicula. Still the possibility remained.
On this cafe stage, Kawaguchi brings out cafe regulars from his cast of twelve. A few souls even have reason to time-travel. And they do, do so for the most deserving of reasons: Love.
In one scene, Kohtake, a nurse, enters Funiculi Funicula and finds her husband there. Viz, Fusagi's a regular and given to perusing travel magazines, noting pictures of where he once travelled. He asks the woman in front of him why she's speaking to him. He wants to go back to his magazine and coffee. Besides magazines, the man has an old brown envelope in his zipped portfolio with a letter he'd told the cafe waitress Kazu he wanted to give to his wife. But in the scene, his wife is standing in front of him. He doesn't recognize her. Fusagi has early onset Alzheimer's.
What if, while at Funiculi Funicula, Kohtake could time-travel back to the time when Fusagi still recognized her? What would he say to her if he had an inkling of what was then happening? This is the premise for just one of four rich encounters between loved ones that gives them a second chance to find the peace of understanding.
Time travel at Funiculi Funicula has rules, some are discouraging, but a basic one is the present will not be changed. And then, most importantly, one's stay while time-travelling is strictly limited to the duration of time before the coffee gets cold. No exceptions. If you stay longer, you turn into a ghost!
With Before the coffee gets cold, Kawaguchi wields a tool kit of time-travel and gives his characters revelations for dramatic repair of their souls.
Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot. Picador, London. 2019. 213 pp. ISBN: 978-1-5290-2959-8.
Image credit: bookdepository.com
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
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.pdf (for PCs)
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