Before Your Memory Fades Review

By Nic Daniels

TW: Suicide Ideation

Hello audacious readers!

I hope everyone had time to make some good memories, even as May flew by. Last month, we explored the complex legacy of the legendary poet Phillis Wheatley Peters in The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. This month, we’re back in Japan with the third installment of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before Your Memory Fades.

In the town of Hakodate resides a café named Donna Donna; the original time-traveling café run by Yukari Tokita. Unlike her calm and steady son, Nagare—owner of the Funiculi Funicula café in Tokyo—Yukari is impulsive and free-spirited, so much so that she has left Japan with little notice for an unknown amount of time, leaving the café in charge of Nagare and his ever-unfazed barista and cousin, Kazu. Joining them is Kazu’s daughter, Sachi, and a host of new café regulars.

Where Before the Coffee Gets Cold was about moving on and Tales From the Café being about acceptance of past decisions, this book focuses on working through grief. The first tale focuses on Yayoi going back in time to air her grievances to the parents she lost too soon; the next is a comedian, Todoroki, telling late wife he achieved his ultimate goal; after that, Reiko goes back to see her sister one last time; and, finally, two childhood friends realizing their true feelings for each other too late.

So, for those of us who have been reading this series know that it is no stranger to grief. In fact, it’s been integral to most of the storyline. However, grief was an underlying emotion to either guilt or anxiety but in Before Your Memory Fades, our time travelers are emotionally stuck in the past. Yayoi blames her life choices on her parent’s untimely accident. Todoroki only worked towards the comedian grand prize, figuring that would be the end of his life. Reiko is traumatized by the loss of her sister to the point that she mentally can’t accept she’s gone.

Now, each of these stories have a similar conclusion in that in talking to the person they lost, they each come to accept the loss and use it as motivation to live their life to the fullest. I’m not going to lie: After a while, it felt repetitive when reading and by the third story I was like “yes, I know the lesson.”

And then there’s was the fourth story. Throughout the novel, we’ve seen glimpses of Setsuko, a café regular, and Reiji, a barista and aspiring comedian, in the background of the other tales. We knew they were childhood friends and that they supported each other unconditionally but it was also apparent that Setsuko was in love with Reiji while he never noticed her feelings. But when Setsuko travels to America for heart surgery, Reiji realizes his feelings too. In fact, he goes back in time to declare them to her, urging her to come back as soon as possible so they can get married. But just when my hope was at its peak, Setsuko passes away, making me realize something very important.

Nothing prepares you for grief. Nothing prepares you for the finality of it. Even more so, nothing prepares you to lose who you were with that person. In a sense, you can’t help but lose a piece of yourself and the more someone means to you, the more of yourself you lose. So, how do you move on from that?

The best Kawaguchi and I have is this: don’t let that person die within you. Don’t ignore all the good things you’ve learned from them. Never stop sharing the version of yourself you were with them or let the memories you had together fade. Let that version of yourself live on so that person can live on through you.

I hope you enjoyed Before Your Memory Fades. There’s a lot more I want to discuss about this heart wrenching, and heartwarming read but I’ll save that for the IG live, coming soon. Feel free to share your thoughts and, until next time, don’t forget to read audaciously!