Book Review | Growing up Via Time Travel
While the desperation of the time-travel patrons is palpable and the situations are poignant, you get a tremendous sense of comfort from reading about their different kinds of love
In Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s collection of short stories, Before I Knew I Loved You, there’s an iconic little cafe in Tokyo owned by the Tokita family. It’s rumoured that patrons can be transported back in time for a brief period, but there are rules. Very strict rules that are enough to put most people off. For starters, there’s only one time-travel seat in the cafe that is permanently occupied by the ghost of a lady in white who did not abide by the rules. Apparently, even ghosts have to take restroom breaks, so only when she vacates her seat to use the facilities, can a patron who wishes to time-travel sit there. The second rule is, the magical coffee that transports you to the past must be finished to the last drop before it becomes cold, or else you will become stuck in the past forever, like the lady in white. There are many more rules (you will discover them as you read on), and fortunately, several loopholes too.
You meet three members of the Tokita family (Kazu the waitress who pours the magical coffee, her talented cousin Nagare who can cook anything you ask for, and the mysterious lady in white), several lively regulars at the cafe, and four patrons who have different reasons to visit the past. There’s a young woman who ran away from home in her terrible teens. She desperately wants to apologise to her stepmother for her bad behaviour, and tell her she appreciates everything she did for her. Then there’s a school boy who was brought up solely by his father; he’s at a loss when his father dies, and he has a question about his mother he absolutely has to ask. A woman who has been diagnosed with cancer wants to know if she will survive — this however, is a question for the future and not the past, so can this special cafe help with the answer? There’s also a young man who visits every year to clear up a misunderstanding with his childhood crush who has had amnesia for years.
While the desperation of the time-travel patrons is palpable and the situations are poignant, you get a tremendous sense of comfort from reading about their different kinds of love. These are chicken-soup-for-the-soul stories, really hearty and fragrant chicken soup at that. After all, don’t you often wish you could travel back in time and have a last few words with someone who has passed on or is currently out of your life? Perhaps to say you’re sorry, or to ask for advice, or just to see and hear them again?
Before I Knew I Loved You
By Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Tr. by Geoffrey Trousselot
Picador
pp. 222