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A review by banaamelia
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
0.25
I had to read this for book club but I definitely would have picked it up myself because of all the tiktoks of people literally crying about it and recommending it like no one’s business. I wouldn’t have finished it however if it wasn’t for book club because oh my god it was so terrible. I’m convinced every good review on tiktok was a paid ad.
I have never picked up and put down a book so often while reading something. It was extremely hard to follow at times because of the choppy structure and inclusion of so many characters at once.
My biggest issue however was the writing. I felt as though it possibly lost its allure through the translation but the attitudes towards women made me so uncomfortable that I think it was less to do with the translation and rather the author himself. His description about the women were written like his self inserted fantasy of a woman that was shallow and superficial but tried and failed so hard to make them deeper than they were. But all we got was on the surface vague descriptions that were all tell and no show that made me cringe and squirm.
Hirai’s story started to redeem the book but then it went steeply downhill again with Kei’s.
I have never picked up and put down a book so often while reading something. It was extremely hard to follow at times because of the choppy structure and inclusion of so many characters at once.
My biggest issue however was the writing. I felt as though it possibly lost its allure through the translation but the attitudes towards women made me so uncomfortable that I think it was less to do with the translation and rather the author himself. His description about the women were written like his self inserted fantasy of a woman that was shallow and superficial but tried and failed so hard to make them deeper than they were. But all we got was on the surface vague descriptions that were all tell and no show that made me cringe and squirm.
Hirai’s story started to redeem the book but then it went steeply downhill again with Kei’s.