THE SECRET GLASS

Another covert small shocker (as accomplished as what Harriet Said and did -- 1973) given substance and veracity by the meager Liverpudlian circumstances in which it takes place. Who could be more ordinary, upright and self-respecting than Aunt Nellie, a dressmaker -- or for that matter her plain, withdrawn niece Rita who has been ""put down"" by living with the older woman and her somewhat worldlier sister Margo who at least had been married and hasn't quite given up hope. The time is World War II and Rita falls in love with an American soldier whose background seems almost as anonymous as he is -- awkward and quiet, rather like Rita. But it is the shrewder Margo who realizes that he's ""empty inside"" without anticipating, nor will you, what will really happen. . . Petit Guignol, sad, sudden and startling all at once.