At last, a slightly more accurate pinpointing of the time setting of this novel:
When the main feature finally started we had been seated for at least half an hour, and I saw with some relief it was to be the science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey — a favourite of mine which I never tired of seeing. (p. 93)
Well neat. That places it somewhere after 1968 and while the language of the book is still a bit dated and formal, it settles me into the storyworld a bit more comfortably. As the movie is referred to by the narrator as a classic, I would assume the time period stands somewhere between 1975 – 1995 when the book was published. Then I am jerked out of my comfort zone with this:
As soon as those impressive opening shots of a prehistoric world appeared on the screen, I could feel myself relaxing, and I was soon comfortably absorbed in the film. We were well into the central section of the narrative — with Clint Eastwood and Yul Brynner on board the spaceship bound for Jupiter — when I heard… (p. 94)
Huh? Dirty Harry and the King of Siam weren’t in this flick; what’s going on here?
Then it hits me; I must open my mind to the story and accept it as it is given to me. Fiction, after all, is exactly that.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology