A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

, 380 pp. ) is a series of partly autobiographical and partly fictional variatio

ns on his theme . Each centers on a different personage , and Naipaul himself ap

pears in many of them . The principal characters differ widely . There is a Trin

idadian who uses his color sense as both a funeral parlor cosmetician and a cake

 decorator ; and a conservative Port of Spain lawyer who unexpectedly reveals hi

s flaming commitment to black power . There is a supercilious English writer who

 helps and patronizes the narrator ; an itinerant Caribbean radical `` an impres

ario of revolution '' who is lionized by the radically chic in London and New Yo

rk , and an enterprising Venezuelan who has submerged his identity as a Trinidad

ian Hindu . Some of the figures are historical . Naipaul writes a vivid fictiona

lized account of Sir Walter Raleigh , aged and desperate , seeking to discover E

l Dorado as a way out of his political troubles at home . He paints a poignantly

 imagined portrait of the early Venezuelan revolutionary , Francisco de Miranda 

, lifted up and let down by his British patrons and finally , betrayed by the su

pporters of Bolivar , dying in a Spanish prison . At first glance there seems to

 be little connection among the real , part-real and fictional characters he wri

tes of . The styles differ considerably too : from factual documentary to a firs

t-person combination of memoir and commentary to poetic evocation . In fact all 

of the protagonists are linked by their passage through the world of the Caribbe

an . It is a world that , instead of evolving gradually through slow migrations 

and evolution , was created in a kind of cataclysm . In the space of a few years

 , the Spanish , the French and the British landed , fought each other , and sho

ved aside the Native Americans as unfit for their purpose . Their purpose was su

gar plantations ; and to accomplish it they brought over slaves from Africa and 

indentured laborers from India . And then , after a couple of centuries , they w

ere gone ; leaving behind a fragmented culture resting on a jumbled , conflictin

g , half-dreamed past . Naipaul doesn't draw the comparison , but one thinks of 

Prince Sigismund in Calderon 's `` Life Is a Dream . '' Arbitrarily immured in a

 tower from infancy , he suddenly finds himself arbitrarily released and royal o

nce more in a wide and terrifying universe . Sigismund went temporarily mad . Na

ipaul 's characters are put together out of pieces that don't fit . Though not u

sually mad , they maneuver hybrid and uncertain identities through a world const

ructed of misapprehensions and are visited by undissolved bits of a heritage the

y are unconscious of . In his gentle corpse-and-cake decorator , Naipaul sees an

 ancestral ghost of `` the dancing groups of Lucknow , lewd men who painted thei

r faces and tried to live like women . '' He adds : `` He frightened me because 

I felt his feeling for beauty was like an illness ; as though some unfamiliar de

forming virus had passed through his simple mother to him and was even then .. .

 something neither of them had begun to understand . '' The lawyer , Evander , a

 properly British-mannered black professional in a still-colonial Trinidad , rec

eives a courtesy visit from young Naipaul , about to depart for London on a priz

ed scholarship . There is a starchy moment or two ; then , startlingly , Evander

 raises his fist , smiles , and says : `` The race ! The race , man ! '' It was 

meant as a secret , confraternal sign to a youth who was off to learn from the e

nemy and come back to fight . Except that Naipaul wasn't . He was off to gather 

the rewards that the British colonial authorities had implied would be his when 

he reached London with his prize . Instead there were years of misery , condesce

nsion and the grinding struggle to find himself as a writer . In his portrait of

 Foster Morris , an established author who helps him generously and then mortall

y offends him , Naipaul vents with gleeful malice his feelings toward the grip o

f British attitudes , not only on his country but also on his own divided nature

 . But Evander mistook young Naipaul in another respect , as well . As a member 

of Trinidad 's Indian minority , he felt no kinship with the black nationalist c

urrent that was to accompany independence in Trinidad and other parts of the Car

ibbean . On the contrary , he felt his own identity threatened ; as he would yea

rs later in Africa , where the Indian middle class was a particular target of bl

ack politics . Naipaul 's angers can be useful as well as shrill , and usually d

irected at those British and black who exercise power . The finest portraits are

 of figures torn and fluttering through their lives and identities . His Miranda

 is one of the best things he has done , and he writes of the deluded Raleigh wi

th unusual compassion . And there is the Indian whom Raleigh , assuming he comes

 from El Dorado , takes back to London to make up for the gold he couldn't find 

. In fact , Don Jose comes from the well-settled province of Nueva Granada ( Col

ombia ) . His reflections on Raleigh and on European dreams have a haunting simp

licity . Asked years later what difference he finds between the Europeans and th

e Indians , he answers with an irony that points up what Naipaul is after : `` I

 've thought a lot about that . And I think , Father , that the difference betwe

en us , who are Indians , or half Indians , and people like the Spaniards and th

e English and the Dutch and the French , people who know how to go where they ar

e going , I think that for them the world is a safer place . ''

 ROOMMATES : Monday night on NBC . Eric Stoltz plays a Harvard-educated professi

onal who is gay . Randy Quaid plays is a paroled bank robber who is not . They d

on't have much in common , except that they 're both suffering from AIDS and are

 sharing an apartment in a facility for AIDS patients . Quaid 's character 's vi

ew is that `` AIDS is God 's way of cleaning house . '' What begins as a rocky r

elationship grows into a supportive friendship at a time when the two men need i

t most . Elizabeth Pena plays the social worker who arranges for the men to shar

e a room . Charles Durning plays the father of one of the men . BEFORE YOUR EYES

 : KRISTIN IS MISSING : Tuesday night on CBS . This is the story of 14-year-old 

Kristin Coalter of Kent City , Mich. , who ran away from home with truck driver 

Bill Neuville , 49 . Presented as the events unfolded , the movie begins soon af

ter Kristin , a star athlete and straight-A student , disappeared on April 20 , 

1993 , and follows her parents , Nancy and Larry Coalter , on an emotional ride 

for nearly seven months . CBS was alerted to this particular case by the Nationa

l Center for Missing and Exploited Children . About 450,000 children run away fr

om home each year . One in seven teens runs away from home ; nearly a third beco

me prostitutes within two days . Half of all runaways who return home run away a

gain . 1994 WORLD MUSIC AWARDS : Tuesday night on ABC . Entertainers share the s

tage with members of the ruling family of Monaco for this seventh annual interna

tional special from Monte Carlo 's Sporting Club . The show , honoring the world

 's best-selling recording artists for the year , was taped May 4 and will be se

en in more than 80 countries . Among presenters : Prince Albert and Princess Car

oline of Monaco , Fabio , Claudia Schiffer and David Copperfield . Host Patrick 

Swayze and his wife , Lisa Niemi , dance to an instrumental version of Whitney H

ouston 's `` All the Man That I Need . '' Their dance , choreographed by Lar Lub

ovitch , is the first time Swayze has danced on television and is a tribute to H

ouston , whose five awards make her the most lauded performer in the history of 

the event . Also honored : Placido Domingo , Ray Charles and the artist formerly

 known as Prince . JACQUI 'S DILEMMA : Thursday night on ABC . This dramatizatio

n of the decisions faced by a 16-year-old who becomes pregnant is interspersed w

ith comments from parents , teens , educators , clergy , adoption-service counse

lors , social workers , teen-age parents and physicians ( including U.S. Surgeon

 General Joycelyn Elders ) , discussing the issues surrounding teen sexuality . 

Melissa Thompson portrays Jacqui . FALL FROM GRACE : Thursday and Friday nights 

on CBS . This four-hour mini-series , an international co-production filmed in E

urope and based on Larry Collins 's novel , is set against the staging and landi

ng of the Allied forces in Normandy in June 1944 . Michael York , Gary Cole , Pa

tsy Kensit , Julian Curry and Richard Anconina head the large international cast

 . COMING & GOING : Friday night on PBS . Don't be put off : `` Coming & Going ,

 '' a three-part PBS series on transportation , is not dull . It 's a series tha

t really moves , so to speak , carried along by a fast-paced score . The series 

, beginning Friday night , is about the way transportation shapes our national c

haracter and our landscape . It mixes history , philosophy , facts and personal 

stories as it talks about railroads , container ships , airplanes , truckers hau

ling down the highways ; about building interstates and suburbs and light rail s

ystems ; and about shipping to people in all areas what they want and need all y

ear around . Filmed in two dozen states , the series is a project of producer Cr

aig Perry . Perry hired National Public Radio 's Scott Simon to narrate and comm

issioned a lively and original score by David Hamilton . It was living in Los An

geles that caused Perry to realize that transportation `` becomes a dominant fea

ture of your life . I was living the problem . I thought , ` As a television pro

ducer , there is something I can do about this . ' It 's been a six-year journey

 from the time the idea occurred until now , and I 've learned a lot . In the be

ginning , I went to find out who was doing this to us , and I realized that it w

asn't anybody : We had met the enemy and he was us . ''

 The little-noticed role of South African-made arms in the catastrophe of Rwanda

 presents Nelson Mandela with an early test of his ability to reconcile realism 

and idealism . At least 3,000 of Rwanda 's soldiers and militiamen carry South A

frican-made R-4 automatic rifles . Rwanda bought them in 1992 from Armscor South

 Africa 's state-owned arms corporation along with 10,000 hand grenades , 20,000

 rifle grenades , 10,000 launching grenades and more than 1 million rounds of am

munition . In Rwanda 's killing fields , such grenades and automatic rifles have

 been weapons of choice , after machetes . At the Christ Spirituality Center in 

Kigali , soldiers opened fire with automatic rifles , killing five diocesan prie

sts , nine congregated women , three Jesuits and their cook . In Rukara , journa

lists came upon about 500 corpses inside a church . One survivor said the people

 had died when militiamen threw dozens of grenades inside the building . Will th

e new South Africa sell arms to countries like Rwanda ? Mandela , with his inter

national reputation as a peace-aker , may not want to . But the United Nations t

rade embargo against South Africa is expected to be lifted soon , and new market

s are already opening up for South Africa 's deadliest goods . Andre Buys , an e

xecutive for Armscor , told Defense News last month that `` we expect that by 19

96 ( arms ) exports will at least double , and possibly quadruple . '' Like Vacl

av Havel of Czechoslovakia before him , Mandela may find that his humanitarian i

mpulses are not strong enough to resist the financial attractions of the arms tr

ade . When Havel became president of Czechoslovakia in 1989 , he promised to end

 arms exports . But last year , after the country split into the Czech Republic 

and Slovakia , both renewed sales . Before Mandela 's inauguration , ANC spokesm

an Madala Mthembu carefully suggested that the post-apartheid government would n

ot abstain from the arms business . `` Once the new government is up and running

 , we will welcome a complete lifting of all remaining sanctions and embargoes a

gainst South Africa , '' Mthembu told Defense News . `` We also wish to state th

e new government will be in full compliance with international standards governi

ng exports of technologies and materials that would threaten world security . ''

 Such standards would preclude arms sales to states like Libya , which is also c

urrently subject to a U.N. embargo . But states like Rwanda before its present c

risis would still be able to legally buy arms . Ethnic strife , which plagues mu

ch of the world , makes for a boom market in the weapons trade . And South Afric

an weapons are generally more reliable , accurate and durable than comparable ar

ms made by Egypt , Russia , Romania and even Israel in some categories . While t

he world rejoices in witnessing apartheid 's downfall , it will have the unexpec

ted effect of adding to the glut of arms already flooding the places that least 

need them , such as Rwanda , Sudan and Cambodia . No one expects Mandela to turn

 his back on what promises to become one of the new South Africa 's better earne

rs of foreign exchange . But few would expect , either , a man who has devoted h

is life to his country 's struggle for justice , equality and human rights to tu

rn his back on future victims of other abusive regimes . He doesn't necessarily 

have to . South Africa can afford to forgo sales of guns and grenades because it

 actually makes most of its profits from the sale of expensive , high-technology

 systems like laser-designated missiles , aircraft electronic warfare systems , 

tactical radios , anti-radiation bombs and battlefield mobility systems . This s

ort of weaponry , while potentially deadly , is much less likely to be used in h

uman-rights abuses than small arms . In anticipation of an end to the U.N. embar

go , South Africa created the Denel Corp. in 1992 . While Armscor has since serv

ed as the government 's defense-procurement organization , Denel has operated as

 a private manufacturing consortium , representing 60 percent of the arms indust

ry . Denel expects to lead export sales ; such sales averaged $ 127.5 million in

 the early 1990s and increased to $ 222.2 million in 1993 . Rwanda 's purchase o

f $ 5.9 million of grenades , mortars and ammunition from Denel made only a tiny

 addition to South Africa 's balance sheet . South Africa also has a technologic

al edge in land-mine-detection and -sweeping equipment especially needed by Camb

odia and other countries . While South Africa has already begun to market this e

quipment , it announced in March that it would not sell land mines at the same t

ime and stopped exports . Although it could be argued that this announcement was

 motivated more by appearance than principle , it was a welcome sign . But Mande

la and the ANC 's stated policy isn't good enough . Exporting mine-sweeping equi

pment is a legitimate way to earn foreign exchange ; sales of any arms to human-

rights violators are not . The new South Africa should re-examine its export pol

icy on such items . International prohibitions against arms sales to abusive reg

imes are at present non-existent or weak . Rwanda , with its long-documented his

tory of ethnic strife and its grisly record of human-rights abuses , is a case i

n point . Rather than sink to this standard , Mandela should lead the world in r

aising it up . Frank Smyth , a freelance journalist and investigative consultant

 , is the author of `` Arming Rwanda , '' published by the Human Rights Watch/Ar

ms Project in New York .

 A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament , a worldwide phen

omenon to be played in the United States for the first time beginning June 17 , 

is available in a set of three home videos . Each of the three volumes by PolyGr

am Video lists for $ 14.95 and has a running time of about 60 minutes . The thre

e volumes : `` World Cup USA '94 : The Official Preview , '' which includes a to

urnament history with footage all the way back to the first World Cup held in 19

30 . There 's a look at the training of the 1994 U.S. team and a profile of Braz

il 's Pele , just 17 when he took the 1958 event by storm , repeating in 1962 an

d 1970 . `` Top 50 Great World Cup Goals , '' highlighting exciting moments from

 competition beginning in 1966 with favorites such as Pele , Johan Cruyff , Dieg

o Maradona , Roberto Baggio , Salvatore `` Toto '' Schillaci and Franz Beckenbau

er . `` Great World Cup Superstars , '' focusing on the top names in the game , 

featured in the `` Goals '' cassette , and adding some interviews that offer an 

insight into what makes these stars shine . Three new basketball videos availabl

e : `` Sir Charles '' takes a look at the on-court intensity and dynamic skills 

of Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns as well as his entertaining off-court per

sona. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` NBA Superstars 3 '' follows up

 on two previous hit videos meshing the moves of the NBA 's elite with today 's 

hit music . This one includes Kenny Anderson , Steve Smith , Derrick Coleman , L

arry Johnson , Dan Majerle , Alonzo Mourning , Hakeem Olajuwon , Mark Price , Sh

awn Kemp , Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars . Their play is matched with the music of

 Erick Sermon , M People , LL Cool J , Celine Dion , Domino , Soulhat , Soul Asy

lum , Buckshot LeFonque , Branford Marsalis , Pearl Jam and Rozella. $ 19.98 , 5

0 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` Hog Wild : The Official 1994 NCAA Championship 

Video '' recaptures the excitement of the latest edition of March Madness and Ar

kansas 's march to the title with rousing victories over Michigan , Arizona and 

Duke in the three final games. $ 19.98 , 45 minutes , 1-800-747-7999 .

 It is only natural that a writer make the literary most of whatever happens to 

him . In April 1984 the distinguished novelist Reynolds Price was asked by a fri

end with whom he was walking why he kept slapping his foot on the pavement . It 

was the first faint whisper of the monstrous illness that would roar across his 

body for the next four years . For unbeknown , an eel-shaped tubular cancer had 

taken root and was compressing his spinal cord . For the next four years the aut

hor would undergo radiation to his spinal cord , multiple surgical procedures di

agnostic , palliative and the last , one hopes , curative . In addition to the p

aralysis of the lower half of the body , there was a slowly ascending numbness t

o just below the nipple line . And there was pain , real and phantom , the latte

r no less severe for all its suggestion of unreality . It was suffering worthy o

f Job . On page after page , we are confronted by the downright ugliness of suff

ering , its senselessness . Pain is not noble ; it is disgustingly ordinary . Th

e reader tries to imagine the pain , but the language of pain is exclusive ; it 

is a tongue spoken by one person only . The rest of us are not conversant in it 

, nor can it be conveyed in words . Never mind , we shall know it in our turn . 

There is some danger in the reiteration of pain , that it will eventually have a

n anesthetic effect no matter how persuasive the writing . In this , it is not u

nlike pornography that within minutes becomes tedious . The rapture of others ca

nnot be rendered in words either ; for that too we must wait our turn . `` A Who

le New Life '' is Price 's candid account of his ordeal , written , he announces

 , to furnish others in similar trouble `` a companionable voice that 's lasted 

beyond all rational expectation . '' He has written it years after the white hea

t of the events and from the vantage of the crippled survivor . Like many such r

ecountings , I suspect it was written also to exteriorize the horror , to put a 

barrier of printed pages between himself and what can best be described as a re-

enactment of Dante 's `` Inferno . '' Eschewing the novelist 's proven gifts of 

style there is none of the elegance , nuance , ambiguity or wit of his powerful 

novel , `` Kate Vaiden '' he tells his story in a prose that is stripped down an

d pell-mell , utterly devoid of the pomp of language or the writer 's vanity . T

he sentences come spilling out much as the facts were remembered , but the meani

ng of the sometimes clotted paragraphs is never in doubt . Much of the book tell

s of the few ups and the many downs in his agonizing struggle to live the progre

ssive loss of strength and sensation and function . With each diminution , along

 with the author , we contemplate sadly the little that remains from the much th

at was . A good deal of the account is moving : his brother 's preoperative kiss

 , and the fellowship of the `` gimps '' at the the rehabilitation center all st

riving to recover a modicum of independence . We cheer each brief respite from p

ain as we do his brave resumption of writing and teaching . What sustained him ?

 There was a seemingly endless line of kind friends and acquaintances who commit

ted themselves over long periods of time to assist Price in recapturing the pace

 of his life . One 's inner strength is no match for suffering . It is not our o

wn strength alone that will help us prevail , but the strength and commiseration

 of others . It takes courage to lean on others , but great suffering demands of

 us that humility . Too , there is Price 's lifelong belief in a God who is pers

onally interested in him , if not always benevolent . This belief was made power

fully manifest just prior to the course of irradiation . The area on his back to

 be treated had already been marked out with purple dye . The radiation oncologi

st had informed the patient of all the possibilities . Shortly thereafter , Reyn

olds Price experienced an uncanny translocation in which he found himself lying 

on a slope by the Sea of Galilee in 1st-Century Palestine . Sleeping nearby were

 Christ and his 12 apostles all dressed in the tunics and cloaks of the time . I