Smoke and flannel and fumbling toward something intimate and grand, all tinged with the naive hope that things would perpetually bend toward the better. It was dark and raw and strangely innocent in comparison to the lights-always-on world we have now.
Some of the plot depends on not being able to freely get in touch with someone. It wouldn't work now!
This has happened to me more than once...probably because it takes me 20+ years to finish a novel and by then the technology has totally changed!
So many plots don’t work now. Covid, cellphones, Google, street cameras—all fundamentally changed the human experience. Not to mention the performance aspect that now accompanies living. We live in a time of indiscriminate knowledge, where every answer is too easy, and laced with manipulation.