Days at the Torunka Cafe by Satoshi Yagisawa

 

Days at the Torunka Cafe by Satoshi Yagisawa: Book Review

Everyone has a story to share in Satoshi Yagisawa’s “Days at the Torunka Café ” Originally written in Japanese language, the book has been translated by Eric Ozawa. “Days at the Torunka Café” revolves around a small café in a silent neighborhood at a narrow side street in Tokyo and narrates stories around the lives and times of some of the central characters who are in some way or other associated with the café. Each character that has been introduced has a story to narrate.

Primarily, the book comprises of three stories; Sunday Ballerinas, the place where we meet again and a drop of love. The reader will find that all these stories are deeply emotional and moving. The basic premise of each of stories are emotionally moving when compared with the author’s best -selling fiction “Days at the Morisaki Bookshop”. One will find that all the characters in these stories are healing from some past emotional wound or past tragedy and wanting to find positivity and cheerfulness. The stories will surely make the reader numb and make one think through the point of view of the character narrating the events.

The narrative in each of the stories are through first person point of view with scripts and dialogues included from the other characters. The first- person point of view helps the reader to see the world and story from the narrator’s angle and leaving the point of view of the other characters to be assumed.

The first story – “Sunday Ballerinas” is a wonderfully knitted story that initially introduces the Torunka café to the readers and the characters of the book who will ultimately have their own stories to narrate in the other two sections. That said, this story primarily belongs to two unique characters, Chinatsu Yukimura and Shuichi who get introduced to each other in the café under rather extraordinary circumstances and unknown to only one of them that they know each other from childhood. The story that starts rather lightly and in the mid gets absolutely unbelievable lands to an extremely emotional backstory about the characters that helps to connect them to each other. The narrative is slow and steady and helps the reader to form part of the lives of characters which helps in getting involved emotionally at the high and lows of the characters. A wonderfully crafted story.

The second story – “The place where we meet again” centers around Ayako and Hiro along with a backdrop of a character named – Sanae, who is connected to both of them internally. Ayako as a character was already introduced in the first story as a visitor to the café. The story, though, has been narrated from the point of view of Hiro. The story set here travels from decades past to the present. It is a story of lost love and regret and finding meaning again. This is the best story of the lot in the book and makes the reader understand the importance of relationships in the materialistic world. The character of Ayako has the habit of stating quotes she came across while reading books. At the end of the book, there is a citations  and translator’s section where the source of the quotes has been stated.  As one reads through, there are some great nostalgic moments in between the characters of Hiro and Sanae that have been beautifully narrated that the reader will take back home.

The third story – “A Drop of love” centers around the key members of the family who run the Torunka Café. The story is narrated from the point of view of Shizuku who was already present in the first and second story as a side character. The other important character is the sister of Shizuku who had passed away some years ago. Ogino and Kota are the other two important characters in this story which primarily revolves around the psychological relationship in between Shizuku and her late sister Sumire. But the central point of conflict in this story is the character of Ogino.  The narrative in this story is a little slow paced in comparison to the other two stories. In this section, the reader will also come to know the source of the name of the café and how it was formed. While the other two stories are more on events, this story concentrates more on the ups and downs of the emotional connect of the characters. It is a deeply emotional story that takes a turn in the last part when the intention of both Shizuku and Sumire for their own actions are revealed beautifully.

Coffee has an important place in all three stories and the description and narration of coffee has been done in great detail. The impact is that the reader will surely find the aroma of coffee in a virtual reality sense. There are some great lines on coffee and the method of preparation as described in the book. Coffee lovers will find this extremely satisfying.

“The owner milled the beans in the grinder, poured the grounds into the filter, and then began pouring boiling water over them, and the room filled with rich aroma of coffee”.   

If one loves deep emotional stories, “Days at the Torunka Café” will serve as the perfect read. One story in one week is recommended to enjoy and think about the after effects of the each of the characters. People who like visiting unknown and obscure cafes will enjoy this book because as the book progresses and as the reader starts to get into the lives of characters emotionally, Torunka Café becomes almost like a second home to them.