Tales From the Café Review

By Nic Daniels

Hello, audacious readers!

Hope your spring is growing into new opportunities and experiences. Last month, we dived into the thoughtful, slice-of-life novel, Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri. This month we’re going into back to our favorite Tokyo café with Tales From the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

For those of you who were here last winter, the author may sound familiar to you. This is the sequel to our December read, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a magic realism story about a café that has a special ability. Under the careful instructions of stoic waitress, Kazu, and kindhearted owner, Nagare, patrons are given the opportunity to go back in time. Kawaguchi’s first book centered on four women who used their opportunity to shift the path of their life. They went back to help move themselves forward in the present, where they were emotionally stuck, whether out of defiance or heartbreak.

Now, it’s the guys’ turns.

With the men, the stories are more focused on reconciling the past and accepting it. In each story there’s an element of death and each of the men have moved on or rather come to a decision about their life but there’s no peace in that decision. Instead, there’s a feeling of often obligation or guilt covering that decision. It’s only when they meet with the person most affected by their decisions that peace is found.

I think this is exemplified the most in the first story about the dad, Gohtaro, who adopts his best friend, Shuichi’s, daughter and runs his friend’s business out of humbling respect after they pass. However, he decides not to tell his daughter until right before her wedding. Going to the past to take a video of Shuichi, his friend gives Gohtaro permission to truly feel like a father.

Similarly, there’s a story of a son, Yukio, wanting to apologize to his mom, Kinuyo, whom he always wanted to make proud, but could not find success despite her unending support of his dream. There’s also the tale of Kurata, a man happily in love but diagnosed with a terminal illness, going to the future to help his lover, Asami, move on after his death. Last but not least is the story of Kiyoshi, who goes back in time to give his wife a birthday present along with reassurance in their relationship in her last moments. Honestly, this one was my favorite. Communication is key, people!

An unexpected story that was woven throughout the narrative was a subplot between Kazu and the woman that stayed too long in the past, becoming a ghost—what happens when the coffee becomes cold. It turns out that the ghost is her mother. Like the men of the story, Kazu had made a life-changing decision out of obligation: staying at the café to be by her mother’s side. However, at the discovery that she’s pregnant, she comes to a crossroads. She had to make a decision between being happy, despite knowing that she has to let her obligation to her mother go, or holding on to the past. Luckily, she chooses the former.

I love how this book really shows how even when you move on with your life in a physical sense how your fear and shame can bleed into the decisions you make from then on. Watching these men get closure from the people they loved the most, as well as the forms it was shown, was truly comforting. Even if we can’t always get that in real life, at least we have stories like this that help us believe things will be alright in the end.

What did you think about Tales From the Café? Did you enjoy it? Is there anyone you would love to have one last conversation with? What do you want to decide for yourself today? Let me know what you think in the comments below and don’t forget to join the book club IG live.

Until next time, don’t forget to read audaciously!