Book Review : Before Your Memory Fades
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is translated from Japanese to English by Geoffrey Trousselot. It is the third book in the series “Before the Coffee Gets Cold,” following the lead of its unique melancholic atmosphere with introduction of new characters and another cafe that helps people travel through time similar to the one with which the series started.
Blurb On The Book Cover
On the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan, Cafe Donna Donna is fabled for its dazzling views of Hakodate port. But that’s not all. Cafe Donna Donna offers its customers the extraordinary experience of traveling through time and Nagare and Kazu are back to guide four new customers.
There are rules to follow: you can only meet people who have visited the cafe, you must stay seated in your chair and most importantly, you must return to the present before the coffee gets cold.
Review
It is a moving novel that explores the themes of resentment, losing happiness with the loss of a loved one, and second chances. Although it follows a similar pattern as the previous two books in the series, this book outstands the other two in a way that a new cafe comes in light with a similar trait of helping people travel through time.
The plot went through a rollercoaster of emotions, from despair to delight to humor in a loop, experiencing the full spectrum of feelings. This book in the series introduces another cafe, Donna Donna. The Tokyo cafe owner's mother left this cafe without much information, leaving Nagare obliged to serve there in her absence. The four chapters in this book are more about future time travel than the past, where readers will explore the timings and events of people traveling through time that were already decided and the settings were arranged in a manner to make it successful for the people to meet at that time.
In this book, the character development is apt, and there is a chart representation of the characters and how they connect at the beginning of the book like others. With each book in the series, the character count increases, and readers have to keep track of them to connect the dots of the events and incidents. Readers will enjoy the distinct people portrayed in this book, as they are humorous, witty, happier, and sad (the common thing in books of the series). The author did not miss to picture them with detailed descriptions and accounts of their existence.
Readers will love the two characters the most, Sachi (Kazu's daughter) and Yukari (Nagare's mother). The bibliophile in Sachi will make readers connect and understand the emotions of the bookworm in her. Yukari, who went off to America without notifying when she would return to help a boy, would serve as a guiding light for the people coming to the cafe to travel through time to confess or admit what they could not to their loved ones. Readers will explore the stories of a daughter who traveled in the past to condemn her parents for leaving her behind and came with a changed heart, meeting her mother on the same seat when she returned, who traveled in the future to tell her daughter to be happy, second the comedian who was waiting for his friend to visit cafe as he believed his friend would come to travel through time to meet his dead wife, the sister who was in a depression not believing her sister died of illness, and the cafe’s helping guy who went to confess his feelings to her lover who had to go America for treatment.
Readers will fall in love with this book because of the complexities of human emotions explored. They will connect themselves with the characters and the setting of the circumstances. They will find it amusing that the cafe owner knew all the episodes that would happen even when she was away. This book will bring immense joy to the readers. Though there are moments of sadness, the end will satisfy them. The author's remarkable imagination and creativity will leave the readers without words.
This book will teach readers that life and death have to happen. There is no reverse to it so blaming a dead person for unhappiness is no justice as the dead will never feel good seeing their loved one sad. This is a must read book for everyone.
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