pay for disaster assistance, much of which went to victims of last year's Northridge earthquake, rather than simply run up the deficit.

On the table is a smorgasbord of potential cuts, ranging from public broadcasting to Clinton's national service program. The debate surrounding them is seen as a prelude to the larger battles to come over next year's federal budget and it underscores the high stakes and pitched emotions permeating the process since the Republicans seized control of Congress.

On Wednesday, as the first cuts were considered by subcommittees, President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) traded a series of barbs that further illustrated the growing enmity between the two camps.

Gingrich accused the President of demonstrating a "failure to lead" by not accepting a moratorium on new federal regulations--anothermaterial both personal and cultural, with wonderfully engaging essays written over the past decade-some published here for the first time-on diverse topics including literature, movies, going to the Oscars, British comedy, family, feminism, Barack Obama, Katharine Hepburn, and Anna Magnani.

In her investigations, Smith also reveals much of herself. Her literary criticism shares the wealth of her experiences as a reader and exposes the tremendous influence the work of E. M. Forster, Zora Neale Hurston, George Eliot, and others have had on her writing life and self-understanding. Smith also speaks directly to writers as a craftsman, offering precious practical lessons on process, and encouraging readers to attend to the slippery questions of identity, art, love, and vocation.

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