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

 plea for better parenting , less violence and for all of us to `` .. . work for

 a culture in which the incisive intellect , the willing hands and the happy hea

rt are beloved . '' It 's difficult to fault such a profoundly well-intentioned 

piece of work . Not only do Pipher 's claims make sense , but her genuine kindne

ss shows on every page . However , there are problems . Too many case studies go

 by too quickly , which saps much of their power . It might have been more effec

tive to have fewer stories so that we could feel these young women as real peopl

e rather than illustrations of Pipher 's points . Another disturbing trait is oc

casional statements such as , `` One forth of all women are raped . '' Say what 

? Where did this statistic originate ? How is rape being defined ? Are these rep

orted ? How are unreported rapes calculated ? `` Reviving Ophelia '' is an impor

tant book , which , one hopes , will find its way to the right audience. -0- `` 

9 Highland Road , '' by Michael Winerip ( Pantheon , $ 24 , 464 pp . ) Journalis

t Michael Winerip 's , book , `` 9 Highland Road , '' an account of life in a gr

oup home for the mentally ill over a three-year period , is , in many ways , sim

ilar to a fairly intelligent nighttime soap . This has both advantages and drawb

acks . On the plus side , there 's an interesting , diverse cast , each member d

ealing with his or her own issues . The world of mental illness ( like the world

 of doctors , lawyers or cops ) is shown in a captivating way . There 's a satis

fying sense of closure . On the other hand , as in even a high-quality televisio

n drama , everything feels a bit sanitized . Relationships are complex enough to

 make you think , but only for a few minutes . Characters seem two- and three-qu

arters dimensional . That is not to say there isn't a great deal to be learned h

ere . Much of `` 9 Highland Road , '' is truly compelling without ever being exp

loitative . In particular , the chapters dealing with one resident 's multiple p

ersonality disorder are unforgettable . `` Night after night the personality tha

t caused the most turmoil by far was the five year old Scared One . Something aw

ful had happened to Julie at five . Di , ( another personality ) who was four , 

effervescent and well adjusted , absolutely refused to celebrate her birthday . 

She was adamant about not turning five . '' Winerip 's writing is smooth and ple

asant although somewhat lacking in physical detail. `` 9 Highland Road '' may ei

ther satisfy or frustrate depending on your expectations . This is a book that w

ill stick to your ribs , but not your psyche .

 A journalist of Croatian descent who lives in Zagreb , Drakulic recounts the ex

periences of individuals who have endured and those who have perpetrated the hor

rors racking the former Yugoslavia . A young soldier recalls shooting someone fo

r the first time ; a student plots the disfranchisement of a benefactor ; an old

 friend becomes a refugee . Drakulic decries the perverse mentality that strips 

friends , lovers and neighbors of their individuality and reduces them to anonym

ous ethnic statistics : `` The irrational that dwells in each of us is being unl

eashed from its chain and nobody can control it anymore .. . because the demons 

in us have already made people perceive themselves as nothing but parts of the n

ational being. .. . If there is any future at all , I am afraid of the time to c

ome . '' -0- `` A Big Storm Knocked it Over , '' by Laurie Colwin ( HarperPerenn

ial , $ 12 , 259 pp . ) . The last novel by a talented writer who died premature

ly in 1992 , `` Storm '' focuses on a young woman in New York City who observes 

the messy state of the families she knows and despairs of making her own marriag

e work . Jane Louise Parker loves her husband and enjoys her work as a graphic d

esigner , but she 's haunted by the fear that her happiness will crumble , despi

te her efforts to preserve it . The honest vulnerability of the characters sets 

Colwin 's novel apart from the vapid tales of Manhattan neurotics who decry thei

r angst in trendy clubs and chic boutiques . -0- `` Sweet & Sour , '' by Andrew 

A . Rooney ( Berkeley , $ 5.99 ; 305 pp . ) . There 's something patently false 

about an Emmy-winning television commentator posing as a Regular Guy who loses o

dd socks in the dryer and balks at paying $ 27 for a tie . Despite his ingenuous

 stance , Rooney is not a dispenser of folk wisdom , but of folksy wisdom , the 

sort of down-home corn American audiences savor : The fruit in stores isn't as g

ood as it used to be ; self-service hasn't made gas cheaper and significantly , 

in light of past controversies `` I 'm tired of fighting my prejudices . I 'm go

ing to relax and enjoy them . '' -0- `` ZEN SPEAKS : Shouts of Nothingness , '' 

by Tsai Chih Chung , translated from the Chinese by Brian Bruya ( Anchor : $ 10.

95 , 159 pp. , illustrated , paperback original ) . Taiwanese cartoonist Tsai Ch

ih Chung continues his exploration of Asian philosophy in this sly introduction 

to Zen Buddhism . The simple line drawings of a chubby , bulbous-nosed monk ( re

miniscent of the figures in old comic scrolls ) offer parables and puzzles that 

emphasize some of the key tenants of Zen belief : The folly of seeking Enlighten

ment outside oneself , the error of confusing words with meanings , etc . More t

han 18 million of Tsai 's books have been sold in 12 languages : `` Zen Speaks '

' is the second to appear in English . -0- `` I HAD A FATHER : A Post-Modern Aut

obiography , '' by Clark Blaise ( Addison-Wesley , $ 12 , 204 pp . ) . As a chil

d , Blaise had to endure his father 's womanizing , shady dealings and pathologi

cal lies . He attempts to come to grips with his pain in these fragmented recoll

ections of a search for identity that lead to an ancestral home in rural Quebec 

and provided insights into his own interracial marriage . Unfortunately , the au

thor 's moments of genuine insight get buried in rambling attempts to mythologiz

e his condition . -0- `` Seasons of the Coyote , '' edited by Philip L. Harrison

 ( HarperCollins West , $ 24.95 , 114 pp. , paperback original ) . Intelligent ,

 adaptable and persistent , the coyote inhabits virtually every corner of North 

America , despite ill-advised campaigns to exterminate it . The brief essays in 

this attractive volume extol the cleverness and scroungy beauty of the coyote an

d recap the important place it occupies in Amerindian mythologies . The color pi

ctures are striking and exceptionally crisp , but the decision to print the text

 on shaded paper makes the book hard to read . -0- `` Peterson First Guide to Ur

ban Wildlife , '' written and illustrated by Sarah B . Landry ( Houghton Mifflin

 , $ 4.95 , 128 pp. , paperback original ) . Landry takes an unusual approach in

 the latest entry in this popular series , introducing the various types of life

 on earth ( animals , plants , viruses , bacteria , fungi , protoctists ) . Buil

ding from this basic information , she introduces some of the creatures that hav

e adapted to life in American cities , both the familiar ( rabbits , skunks , fr

ogs , ants ) and the less known ( minks , Luna moths , biting mites ) .

 ABC News ' David Brinkley on Thursday night 's `` PrimeTime Live '' will report

 on a World War II tragedy of which he might have been a part if not for a misdi

agnosis of his health by U.S. . Army doctors . `` Knowing the draft was coming ,

 I joined the Army in 1940 , thinking I would get in , serve awhile and get out 

, '' he recalled in an interview from Normandy , France , Wednesday . He was sta

tioned near his hometown of Wilmington , N.C. , with other men from the area , a

s an infantry rifle company 's supply sergeant . He got the job because , as a n

ewspaper reporter when he was a civilian , he was the only man in the unit who c

ould type . `` Early in 1941 , the Army medics gave me an honorable discharge , 

insisting I had a kidney ailment , '' he said , `` but there was never anything 

wrong with my kidneys , then or now . '' At any rate , he returned to work at th

e local paper , and his buddies ' Company I ranks were swelled by draftees in th

e wartime buildup . It was only years later that Brinkley learned that Company I

 had been pulverized by the U.S. . Army Air Corps , which failed to bomb where G

en. Omar Bradley had ordered . `` There were very few survivors , '' said Brinkl

ey , `` and we got them together for this report . One sergeant I worked for in 

the unit still calls me his ` secretary . ' At my age , I 've begun to wonder ho

w many Americans there are left who still really remember how the war affected t

hem . '' A check of census bureau figures shows that only a little more than a f

ourth of all living Americans were born by D-Day 50 years ago . -0- Bryant Gumbe

l will anchor NBC 's `` Today '' from Normandy Friday , and Tom Brokaw will anch

or Friday 's `` NBC Nightly News '' from Portsmouth , England , where Queen Eliz

abeth is to officiate during British memorials . ABC 's Peter Jennings is anchor

ing `` World News Tonight '' from London before moving on to Normandy . -0- `` C

BS Evening News '' co-anchors Dan Rather and Connie Chung and `` CBS This Mornin

g '' co-anchors Harry Smith and Paula Zahn are putting on their shows ( includin

g Chung 's `` Eye to Eye '' Thursday night ) from Los Angeles through Friday nig

ht and mixing it up with CBS affiliate executives at the network 's annual affil

iates meeting . They 're there as CBS tries to put on a good face and prevent fu

rther affiliate erosion on the heels of Fox 's grab of NFL football from CBS and

 of eight big-city CBS affiliates . -0- Lessons for American society today are b

ehind the scheduling of a June 15 `` CBS Reports : When America Trembled Murrow/

McCarthy . '' The special will look at the clash between CBS News ' Ed Murrow , 

the nation 's pre-eminent journalist in the 1950s , and Sen. Joe McCarthy , who 

gained international notoriety by manipulating America 's fear of communism . Mu

rrow 's famous `` See It Now '' broadcast , which demolished McCarthy 's tactics

 but also ultimately destroyed Murrow , will be put in the context of the time i

n which it aired . Dan Rather will anchor the broadcast , which will explore wha

t freedom of the press allows , what defines journalistic integrity and how poli

tical manipulation of the press can be limited . -0- ABC 's hourlong `` Jacqui '

s Dilemma '' Thursday night originally was to have been an `` Afterschool Specia

l , '' but the network 's executives decided the program was something parents s

hould have a chance to watch with their children . The broadcast deals with the 

emotional , social and economic perils a teen-age girl ( Jacqui ) faces when she

 unexpectedly becomes pregnant . Interspersed throughout the drama are interview

s with parents , educators , therapists , clergy , adoption-service counselors ,

 social workers , teen-age parents and physicians . U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joy

celyn Elders is among those who appear . Melissa Thompson stars as Jacqui .

 WASHINGTON Chinese smuggling organizations have vastly expanded their elaborate

 networks of way stations around the world and are now capable of transporting t

ens of thousands of people to the United States , according to a new intelligenc

e assessment that has caused U.S. officials to rethink their approach to illegal

 immigration from China . For more than a year , public attention and law-enforc

ement efforts have focused on shiploads of Chinese emigres arriving on U.S. shor

es . But officials say they face a larger and more-difficult challenge from the 

rapid growth of overseas smuggling networks that transport their human cargo by 

many different means and directions . Such networks have existed for several yea

rs , yet according to the assessment more people are using them than ever before

 and the routes are more complex . Moreover , several developments have made thi

s trade more difficult to combat . The most important and most troubling aspect 

of the new assessment , senior officials said , is the finding that thousands of

 people already have left China en route to the United States and are being held

 by smugglers in a variety of locations while transportation and false documents

 are arranged for them . `` Over the last six months , we have become aware of a

 huge human warehousing operation that holds tens of thousands of aliens at vari

ous points along the pipeline , often for months at a time , '' a senior foreign

-policy official said . The relaxation of border and immigration controls in Eas

tern Europe and the former Soviet Union has produced a proliferation of new rout

es , with Moscow recently emerging as a major hub for Chinese smuggling operatio

ns , a senior official said . An estimated 60,000 Chinese immigrants live illega

lly in Moscow , according to a still-classified report summarizing the recent in

telligence findings . `` Many are believed to be in Moscow awaiting onward trave

l to the U.S. , '' the report states . Russian organized-crime groups have forme

d a formidable alliance with the Chinese gangs known as `` snakeheads '' in the 

lucrative human trade , the report said . Travel along these smuggling networks 

typically involves a circuitous trip with several stops along the way , and for 

some the trip from Fujian Province , the principal departure point , to New York

 , the major destination , can take two years or more , U.S. officials said . ``

 One documented air route used by alien smugglers originated in Bangkok , went t

o New Delhi or Karachi , on to Nairobi or Johannesburg , and then to Buenos Aire

s or Rio de Janeiro . It then went onward to Madrid , Barcelona , and London and

 finally terminated in New York City , '' the intelligence report noted . Most o

f the smugglers ' clients leave China legally , a senior Clinton administration 

official said . They readily acquire passports and often have legitimate visas f

or their first stop outside China , before starting their illegal voyage to the 

United States . Two U.S. delegations have gone to China in the past six months t

o press for cooperation in fighting the ship traffic , but U.S. officials said i

t is much harder to ask for help restraining emigres who leave China legally but

 arrive here as unlawful immigrants . `` As a practical matter it is easier to p

atrol a coastline looking for freighters loaded with people than to screen airli

ne or rail traffic for people who obtained visas with questionable documents , '

' an official said . But there is a diplomatic problem as well . The United Stat

es has pressed China to loosen travel controls as a matter of longstanding human

-rights policy . Progress in this area was cited by President Clinton last Thurs

day when he announced his decision to renew China 's most-favored nation trade s

tatus . In making the new assessment known , officials of several agencies empha

sized their hope that it would provide added justification for a package of anti

-smuggling measures that were proposed by Clinton last summer but have not been 

enacted . The assessment also will be used to seek greater cooperation from seve

ral countries around the world in combating immigrant smuggling . The government

 has no ready estimates of the amount of smuggling traffic , but officials see c

lear signs that the numbers are rising . They note that more than 14,300 Chinese

 nationals applied for political asylum last year four times the number from the

 year before . Smugglers shift routes frequently , depending on the availability

 of safe houses and false documents as well as on pressures applied by law-enfor

cement agencies , the officials said . While some of the illegal immigrants fly 

directly into the United States and seek asylum on arrival , two other routes in

to the country appear to be carrying heavy traffic . In April , U.S. immigration

 officials apprehended three separate groups involving 86 Chinese smuggled into 

Puerto Rico by sea from the Dominican Republic . Once in Puerto Rico , they can 

fly to the U.S. mainland without passing through immigration controls . The othe

r favored route is to go by air or ship to somewhere in Mexico or Central Americ

a and then travel north across the border illegally , U.S. officials said . The 

recent indictment of an alleged snakehead leader in New York indicates how subst

antial numbers of people are transported across the border , the officials said 

. The indictment charged that Chen Guo Ping had helped arrange the transport of 

about 176 illegal Chinese immigrants by ship to Mexico and then across the borde

r . The indictment alleged that after arriving in New York City , Chen 's gang ,

 the White Tigers , held the immigrants in safe houses until fees of about $ 30,

000 each had been paid on their behalf . Chen has denied the charges . The disco

very that large numbers of Chinese use these complex routes has obliged U.S. off

icials to reassess their view of the marine traffic that received so much attent

ion last year after several incidents , including the shipwreck of the Golden Ve

nture on a New York City beach with more than 300 immigrants aboard . `` The pip

elines and way stations appear to have been in place for several years , '' one 

official said , `` and the smugglers seem to have been looking for a more-profit

able , cost-effective means of transport when they began to bring big loads of p

eople directly to the United States . '' U.S. officials believe they were able t

o significantly deter the use of ships by arresting some top snakehead leaders ,

 intercepting several ships and winning the cooperation of the Chinese governmen

t . But they caution that smugglers could turn again to ships in the future if o

ther routes are blocked . Proclaiming that `` today we send a strong and clear m

essage , '' Clinton called congressional leaders to the White House last July 27

 to unveil a package of measures designed to combat such smuggling . Doubled pri

son sentences , expanded use of wiretaps , application of racketeering statutes 

, more aggressive asset seizures and the quick exclusion of emigres who arrive w

ithout proper documentation were all part of the message . So far , none of thos

e measures has cleared a full committee in either house of Congress and there ap

pears to be little prospect for any action this year . A crowded agenda has dive

rted attention from the issue on Capitol Hill , and the administration has shift

ed the focus of its immigration initiatives to the Mexican border , which is thi

s year 's hot topic because of agitation in California . Making the case for the

 measures , a senior law-enforcement official said , `` People have gotten a fal

se sense of security about Chinese alien smuggling , and it has dropped off the 

political radar screen , but in the meantime the problem is getting bigger . ''

 WASHINGTON Only one ship is known to have landed illegal immigrants directly in

 the continental United States since the Golden Venture incident last June a ves

sel that dropped about 110 people onto the Virginia coast in March . More than 6

0 of the passengers were discovered during a raid on a Prince George 's County (

 Md. ) safe house April 5 .

 WASHINGTON Would a mother on welfare have another baby for $ 60 a month ? Would

 she have fewer babies if the extra welfare benefits were not there ? The questi

ons , and the passion they inspire , swirl at the center of what has become the 

most divisive debate in the Clinton administration 's effort to reform the natio

n 's welfare programs . The issue is whether women who are on welfare should be 

denied additional benefits if they have more babies , a policy Clinton said last

 week the states could adopt under his proposal . The power of this debate over 

`` family caps '' springs from deep-seated emotions : alarm at dramatic increase

s in the number of American babies born to single mothers , anger from a populac

e that perceives a failed welfare system , and conviction among many political l

eaders that they can drive down out-of-wedlock birth rates by rewriting the welf

are rules . That acceptance of a causal link between welfare benefits and birth 

rates has become so prominent that it is driving Republican legislation and , to

 some extent , has influenced the proposal Clinton is preparing . What would see

m remarkable is that this argument contradicts the work of social scientists who

 have studied the issue , including some who are now in the Clinton administrati

on . That point , however , seems to have been lost in the debate . `` Welfare e

nables illegitimacy . It pays for illegitimacy , '' said Rep. Tom DeLay , Texas 

, co-chair of a Republican group that drafted legislation banning assistance for

 unmarried teenagers who bear children . `` It 's creating fatherless boys . Tha

t encourages violence , predatory sex , total anarchy within that community . It

 has created a whole culture of dependent people that is destroying the fabric o

f families .. . mostly in the inner city . '' Republicans like DeLay say that a 

prime motive in writing their welfare reform bills is to reduce those birth rate

s . And now the issue has become even more volatile than another reform debate ,

 whether and how to place time limits on welfare benefits . News last week that 

Clinton would allow `` family caps , '' brought together a broad and unlikely co

alition of feminist groups and abortion opponents who vowedto take the issue to 

court . They said such a `` child exclusion '' would encourage abortions , punis

h children and discriminate against welfare mothers . Administration officials s

aid the decision was based on the president 's belief , as a former governor , t

hat states should be allowed great flexibility . But even as the administration 

has come to believe that the inclusion of family caps in the president 's needed

 to gain support in Congress , deep divisions remain over whether they would be 

effective , especially in changing the behavior of teenagers . The political cli