Before The Coffee Gets Cold
Author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi & Geoffrey Trousselot
This book was recommended, by a friend of a friend. He said he cried in an airplane reading this book.
Personally, this book, for me, was a bit bland. I didn’t cry, I didn’t feel any extreme emotions. I feel like, the character introductions and storyline were so brief, that I couldn’t build an emotional connection with their sorrows and concerns. It’s a nice short book though. But I know myself, I tend to not really like short books, because of the reason I stated above. Yea.
“The cafe that transports you back in time. It was an incomplete memory, but she remembered that key phrase clearly”
“Her mind was made up. Or, more accurately, a stubborn resolve had taken root.”
This is me most of the time …
“When his dream comes true, which will he choose: his dream or me? I mustn’t think like that, there’s no comparison. But gosh . . .”
“I’ll let him go and wish him success with all my heart”
“Three years,’ Goro said with his back to her. ‘Please wait three years. Then I’ll return, I promise”
“Perhaps you could buy me a coffee”
“I can’t let the coffee go cold,’ she said and brought the cup close to her mouth. ‘So I forget? I forget you?’ he mumbled, looking down.”
“I don’t really see how all that can be written on her face,’ Kei suggested doubtfully”
“Huh? That’s odd.’ He tilted his head. ‘What was her name?”
“Fusagi lifted his head and looked directly at her. ‘I’m sorry. Have we met before?’ he asked apologetically.”
“In that moment, Fusagi remembered that he had a wife, but he didn’t remember that Kohtake, standing before him, was his wife”
“She had resigned herself to the fact that one day he would completely forget who she was. She was always preparing herself. If it happens, she thought, I will care for him as a nurse. I am a nurse, so I can do that.”
“She was struggling to get things straight in her head while the general mood was so low”
This is me when I am sad … I’m glad it rarely happens.
“Then one day, after those two months, a letter arrived from Fusagi. All it said was: ‘Let’s get married.”
“Yes, let’s”
“On learning that she had come from the future, the first thing he had wanted to know was whether he had forgotten her, his wife. This realization filled her with both joy and sorrow.”
“I want you to leave me.”
“The accident happened on her way home from seeing me, right? So naturally my parents blame me for her death.”
“Hirai had never met another uninhibited woman who did things at her own pace, as she always did herself”
“Treat them mean, keep them keen”
“Water flows from high places to low places. That is the nature of gravity. Emotions also seem to act according to gravity. When in the presence of someone with whom you have a bond, and to whom you have entrusted your feelings, it is hard to lie and get away with it. The truth just wants to come flowing out. This is especially the case when you are trying to hide your sadness or vulnerability”
“emotional gravity”
“Hirai just kept looking at her, happy just to stare. Kumi returned her steady gaze”
“To run the inn together. With you”
^ This bit right here, was very sad.
“Bringing you into this world was the only thing that I did for you. Can you forgive me for that? But how could she expect to receive such forgiveness? She had caused so much sadness.”
“Negativity is food for a malady”
“If your father could see from his box and see you crying every day, what do you think he would think? I think it would make him sad. You know how much your father loved you. Don’t you think it would be painful for him to see the unhappy face of someone he loved? So why don’t you smile every day so that your father can smile from his box? Our smiles allow him to smile. Our happiness allows your father to be happy in his box”
“Her ups and downs could be extreme, but they never lingered”
“Can you forgive me that all I could do was to bring you into this world”
“Can’t you see that saying sorry can only mean that it was your mistake to have her”
“Mum.’ She said it in a nervous, excited voice but Kei heard it clearly”