Do you know the "cocktail party effect"? This is the part that even if we are in a crowded and noisy place, but someone, who is currently at the other end of the same party, says our name - we will immediately turn to the source of the sound because we heard it.
So in a borrowed analogy - this is how I am with coffee. So if it is written on a book לפני that the coffeewill cool down, the chance that I will leave it on the shelf without seeing what it is about tends to zero. According to the Japanese author Toshikazu Kawaguchi, plus the cafe chairs and the mackintosh in the cover illustration, left me no choice and I turned to seriously examine the matter. Because coffee, according to the writer-reader in front of you, is a serious matter.
Before I even turned and opened and read more, I was stopped by the question written at the bottom of the front cover: "If you could go back, who would you like to meet?" I immediately remembered the reasoned answer my young daughter gave to a similar question that was asked. The very question sparked an interesting discussion at home and I was proud and excited by her answer, which I will leave to her privacy. Is there anyone among us who hasn't wondered about a journey to another time in our lives? I don't know many books that I liked already on the front cover; In the name of the book, in the illustration, in the question listed there and also in the name of the author - which I didn't know until last week, but I was promised a trip to Japanese culture and for me this is an excellent thing.
before the coffee gets cold / Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Well, here we are, so it's obvious that I picked up the book and like anything interesting, it got the privilege of being the first to read this week. Kawaguchi promised and delivered. There was a lot of coffee, as mom likes and not only on Saturday morning. And there was a twist in that time travel. Unlike other journeys that have taken us on in books and movies, there is one thing that is guaranteed, for better or for worse, before going on a journey - whatever happens, the present will not change.
In the old cafe, which bears the cool name "Funicoli Funicola", like that song, there is one chair, from which the occupant can travel through time. There are several rules and the main one is: the time traveler must drink the coffee to the end and finish it before it gets cold. And no, will remain as a ghost. As you understand, that doesn't leave him much time at the point in time he chose to go to.
And yet, four stories, intertwined, human, exciting, painful, and in the gentle Japanese way - fascinating, took me on a sweet journey. That is, for a journey quite bitter like the coffee. Bitter to the right degree, like life itself.
In the last few weeks, I remind myself listen to the signs. I don't know if this is the period in life, what happens to us as a nation, maybe what happens to me when I reached, as my father Shiya tells me, the age of advice. I observe more, practice listening more and talking less, and see what is in front of me. After I read Yoram Kaniuk's 558 and wrote to you that I started a sort of memoir, it brought up interesting things. It's like I'm learning to know what I used to be better at and discover that there are things that it's still not too late to listen to and apply, even if they were put in front of me as a child and I didn't take them, I can adopt them to me now.
One of the things I put aside in recent years is the magic in moments, people and even objects. No, this is not some naivety in a world with such a black spot over us. But there is a lot of talk about points of light in the dark and I bring up and compare and stop for a moment to feel what others would call coincidences and I repeat within myself to call them - magic. Maybe the series even affects me good witch, which came up on Netflix and I'm watching it. Maybe. But I think it's the other way around, and I watch it because I want the magic moments back, for me, for my environment, for you.
I hope you find the magic in Kawaguchi's book as I did. It's not that the book is so optimistic, but the softness with which it approaches the characters and the writing itself, teaches a lot about the other culture - the Japanese. You can literally feel the aroma of something else while reading, which together with the smell of good coffee creates in itself a journey through time.
Leaving you with an interesting conversation between two characters, Fumiko and Kazu, a time traveler and a cafe worker:
"It doesn't change the present, does it?"
"Right."
"But what about the things that will happen later?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"From now on..." Fumiko clarified her words. "From now on - what about the future?"
Kazu looked directly at her. "Look, the future hasn't happened yet, I guess it's up to you..." she said, smiling for the first time.
Regarding the question whether remains or is released In my private library, before the coffee gets cold remaining. I am sure that I will return to read it again in the future - that is, to criticize myself who read it in the past. Something like that.
Book details:
Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Kinneret Publishing, Zamora, Dvir, 2022.
Pleasant reading and may good words be by your side always,
Lily
Without a doubt you covered 💗
Oriki's Japanese impressed me in writing;) Thank you Anati.
I bought the book today, it's going out of stock, there is demand
Sounds like a lot of people are about to time travel :) Enjoy your journey and have a good read.
Great review and recommendation this week I will buy the book.
Thank you! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
There is no doubt that I am very curious to read the book following the words written about it.
In addition, I must point out that only according to the cover and the name of the book I, like Lili Milat, would "research" the book and purchase it.
Thanks
Thank you Ronit. Have a good week and happy reading.