Review by C.J. Bunce
In an unmarked backstreet building in Kyoto, Japan, retired cop and widower Nagare Kamogawa and his 30-something daughter Koishi don’t get much business. They only advertise via a single, cryptic line in the ad column of a gourmet magazine, with no actual contact information. What they offer is the re-creation of a memory via a dish from your past. Six more customers try their luck in Hisashi Kashiwai’s 2014 Japanese novel The Restaurant of Lost Recipes, sequel to the 2013 The Kamogawa Food Detectives, reviewed here at borg. The sequel sees its first English translation this month by Jesse Kirkwood for Random House/G.P. Putnam’s Sons. It’s available for the first time now here at Amazon.
As with the first book in the series, this is not a mystery series, but a quaint, short, palm-sized story of two people using their skills to help strangers find themselves via self-reflection and nostalgia. It’s filled with Japanese cuisine and brief trips to neighborhood-level Japan. Each chapter follows the exact same formula as in the first book, which makes the narrative exactly like watching an episode of a Hallmark TV drama. In the second book it unfortunately gets too routine, too monotonous.
First the stranger finds his or her way to the restaurant. Next, they sample food from whatever Nagare has prepared for the day. During this segment it’s really about the food–we learn little about the new client guest. Then Koishi gives a brief interview to each new guest, inquiring the details of what they remember about the food, where they ate it and when, even with whom in some cases. Koishi schedules an appointment for them to return in two weeks, then she discusses the details with her father, and he leaves to begin his research. The next paragraph is the guest returning to sample the meal two weeks later. Usually in one sentence Nagare says something that reflects some life issue the guest has, which is intended to resonate with the guest. We never learn more of the guest and the next chapter moves on to the next guest. Repeat five more times.
Along the way the cat named Drowsy wants to be let in from the cold, but Nagare always says no. Not even at the end of the last chapter does he let the cat inside, which in this second round of stories makes Nagare seem mean or annoying or both. Despite Drowsy the cat on the cover, this is not a cat book for cat lovers. A few tweaks could have made it one. English and American cozy stories in this genre typically deliver the reader more satisfaction, and this story refuses it.
As with the first book Nagare surprises the guests by digging deep into their pasts to uncover more information than the guest was willing to provide, but never in a negative way. The entire action (again) happens off the page, which means the story is completely devoid of any mystery trope material. This all worked in the first book because the approach seemed novel. It’s too formulaic done again over six more stories in the second book. The writing literally appears at times to be the same text with new dialogue swapped in via word processor.
Readers will need to just imagine the fun of following Nagare off the page as he explores the streets of Japan, interviewing people about long-gone restaurants, people who moved away decades ago, and experiences long-removed from the map from any number of reasons.
What might work is if the six guests and corresponding meals, like ramen, hamburger, and fried rice, were adapted into a Hallmark series. That’s the only way the stories would work because they have the barest bones of any serialized component–Nagare and his daughter have no character arc over the 400 pages of the book series.
Nagare is an ex-cop, and you can imagine all kinds of even minor action or hijinx he could be getting into as he sleuthes out his recipes. And the books scream for recipes to be included in an appendix. The ingredients and recipes are practically included in the text, so why didn’t anyone think of that?
Despite the formulaic, repetitive story, the translation is completely successful–nothing is lost in translation and Jesse Kirkwood keeps the pleasant tone and English swaps for Japanese sayings completely easy to understand and relate to. If you liked the original and don’t mind the repeating, this may be for you. Overall it’s an easy read and a sweet little book.
A good partner with both the Geek Anime Cookbook (reviewed here) and The Unofficial Ghibli Cookbook (reviewed here), pick up your copy of the English editions of The Kamogawa Food Detectives, available now here at Amazon, and its new sequel, the October release, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes available now here. Now someone get on the TV series and the cookbook tie-in!
