Dale Stone

Deja Vu, Dale Stone's third book could be called his "Goldilocks" book. TRIP was too long and A Pocketful of Dreams too short. Deja Vu is largely about travel experiences. Travel experiences are nice to write about as they have very definite beginnings and endings. The messy realities of everyday life intrude in amusing and depressing ways even once the stories of the travels displace the here-and-now-ness of Squirrelbush where most of the book was written.

The fact that the author was born in London is quite overwhelmed by the fact that he did not grow up there. The visit to London is not at all the highlight of the book.

Paris, Rome and Athens are described with an easy familiarity absent in the markedly funny episode in Madrid.

Africa in some sense becomes everybody's Africa in the lyrical climax towards the end, but New Zealand rendered somehow as everybody's New Zealand really sets the scene wonderfully for this "Sci-Fi" book.

Deja Vu is designated as "Science Fiction" as all the events portrayed takes place on this rather remarkeable spaceship planet earth... except some dreams perhaps; they might really not really take place quite on earth.

The focus on travels in Deja Vu are also because travels are often happy events and these are arguably more entertaining to share than the drudgery of day to day living.