Reading Journal 2024: Before Your Memory Fades
Author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The third in Kawaguchi’s outstanding series, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, which transports us as readers to a different cafe with familiar and new faces but with the same opportunity to travel back in time. Rules for time travel stay the same, including the necessary cup of coffee that must be finished before it goes cold.
The structure and form of the book largely stays the same as well, perhaps to a fault. You can feel and hear the patterns and routine narratives seeping through at this point, which makes the ingenuity of the previous two books begin to feel slightly tired and predictable. It does find a way to write in some unexpected turns here and there, but the emotional gut punch of the other books gets somewhat muted. Definitely the weakest of the bunch thus far, especially where it wants to tie the series if stories together with a tidy, thematic bow.
Still though, undeniably worth the read. Even if its a bit tired and familiar, its still an affectionate and meaningful read, this time around dealing far more directly with death and grief.
The Stories of my Life 