Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Yes, you can travel through time at that café, but there are rules. Very specific rules, the reasons for which aren't readily apparent, except as plot devices. But an author is allowed to create his own rules, and as plot devices they work well to deliver tension to the narrative, which works well, as this book isn't about the rules as much as it is about the characters. Each character has their own reason for wanting to travel in time, and, although one of the rules is that you won't change the present, each person comes back changed in themselves in some way.
This could have been a touching and tender story. Unfortunately, and I don't know whether to attribute this to the writing or the translation, the language was very stilted. The characters were sympathetic enough, but the wooden dialogue and strained narrative put a barrier between me and them, even between me and the story itself. Some of this might be due to the fact that Kawaguchi is a playwright before he's an author, but making the transition to writing a novel requires more than just changing stage directions to sentences.
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.
