January 7, 2002

The recession that started in March is gradually intruding on people's lives, forcing them to cut back in ways that contribute to the downturn. Young people just out of college find themselves unable to land jobs in their chosen careers, or to afford rent for their first homes. Retirees try to get by on suddenly shrunken incomes. Immigrants send less money to relatives back home, or cut their own expenses. And a growing number of middle-income people, having lost jobs or bonuses or raises, squeeze luxury out of their lives.

Memphis, Tenn, shows new pride in its soul music heritage, whose lights include Al Green, Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes; most ambitious example of new recognition may be Soulsville, $20 million redevelopment project under way on site of old Stax recording studios near downtown; Memphis soul may have been slow to re-emerge and be celebrated because it evoked city's most wrenching moment, assassination of Rev Dr Marti Luther King Jr in 1968; photos; drawing (M)

Janet Maslin reviews William Kennedy novel Roscoe; photo (M)

In the three weeks since a deadly attack on the Indian Parliament, President Bush and his foreign policy team have scrambled to avoid war in South Asia with a simple formula: in daily phone calls to both sides, they have tried to reframe the conflict as a battle over terrorism, not territory. They have carefully offered no opinion on the question of who should control Kashmir, an emotionally explosive issue in both countries. They have not volunteered to oversee negotiations, a role the United States has played so often in the Middle East and elsewhere.

National Guard troops assigned to keep New York City secure following Sept 11 terror attacks for unprecedented 90-day call-up adjust to life at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, and to being away from families for extended period; living quarters and work shifts described; most have been won over by New Yorkers and city; photos (M)