The Café with Five Faces

Such a creative concept: fictionalized ongoing conversations by an assortment of regulars frequenting The Café with Five Faces-the author Chaelli Cattlin’s actual bricks and mortar Café in Hebden Bridge, UK. 
There are five rooms in his café, each named for one of Cattlin’s favorite cities visited in his lengthy stays around the world: Granada, Beirut,  Cape Town, Budapest, and  Hebden Bridge- each designed to appeal to the patrons’ conversational interests with city specific vibes, decor, coffee, tea  and victuals.
So begins the storytelling as regulars and others relate and discuss their experiences and opinions on a variety of topics, with heavy emphasis on politics, politicians and relationships, romantic and otherwise.
It was captivating in the beginning, clever, and at times insightful, and the details of coffee and tea making and accompanying foods of the varied cultures were informative.  The featured photographs by the author at the end of each chapter were appealing, as was the plus of additional city photographs accessible through a website link.   
It was sometimes hard to maintain interest as the characters’ oddities, relationship frustrations and woes, and  back and forth on politics, mostly focused on the UK and USA, began to feel repetitive..
The conversations take place from 2018 to the end of 2019, with an Epilogue referencing the seismic changes in local and world community in real time 2020. 
The book was a fresh and ambitious undertaking, and perhaps The  Café with Five Faces will once again open for business.

Chaelli Cattlin, a life long lover of travel and coffee, is the proprietor of a unique cafe, imaginary that is, which he inhabits with five distinct areas each reflecting a favorite coffee house from disparate parts of the world, each supporting a distinct character attracting a distinct clientele. But there are similarities between them. The food and drink, most notably the coffees, represent his experiences in Budapest, Grenada, Cape Town and the others, and the dialogue is what he overhears and participates in as he visits while serving. Thus, he has managed to present a very meta creation in that the participants voice their opinions (strongly) about Brexit (ANTI) and the current U.S. occupant of the white house. These are linked short stories, and some are more compelling than others. Some ring so true as they might be fact, such as the U.K. native who fudges on his visa application in order to spend a bit longer than the allotted time in New York, and gets turned away at the border. As is his partner, although she was more honest in her application. They are treated like terrorists storming the border with duffles packed with AK 47's and pipebombs rather than the students that they are, and they are from BRITAIN. This is unfiltered view of today's America by a resident of our closest ally, and I was mortified.

This was a really creative book unlike most other reads I've experienced. Cattlin presents a series of linked short stories that comment very strongly on various aspects of modern day politics. This theme gets a bit repetitive, though the commentary is important. I really enjoyed the aspects of culture that are there as well as the descriptions of normal, humdrum, cafe life. Overall, a cosy and insightful experience.

I used to work in a village cafe that used to be full of regulars and I often thought a book on overheard conversations would be very interesting reading.  The regulars in my cafe talked about similar issues, often with the same amount of intensity and repetition; that a newcomer would bring a breath of fresh air and a welcome change of topic.  So, The Cafe With Five Rooms, was the sort of book I was subconsciously searching for.  I absolutely adored the travel stories, the characters themselves were believable, loved the themed room idea, love the food and drink descriptions, love the details about coffee making - although I’m not a coffee drinker Chaelli so my drink of choice would be an Algerian mint tea! Or a glass or two of the Lebanese red wine 😊Maybe with a slice or two of Hungarian cake.  

 I must admit the politics discussions did bore me ... and I was tempted to skip several paragraphs.... not that I disagree or agree with what was said it is just that I just don’t enjoy political discussions either in books, on social media or in coffee rooms!