BROKEN RAINBOWS

When American soldiers descend on a small Welsh town for training during WWII, most of the local men have already gone to join the fighting. The women left behind provide quarters and companionship to the Americans, with mixed results. A native of the story's setting of Pontypridd, Helen Griffin has no trouble with the local dialect, nor with a smattering of other European accents. Her attempts at American English, however, offer a language never heard on this side of the ocean. If the listener can get past the astoundingly strange British portrayal of Southern and Boston accents, Griffin's characters are clear enough and her performance quite competent. But the getting past is a tall order, given the preponderance of Americans in the plot. R.P.L. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 02]