Cover: Disappearing Ink
Time and fate have not been kind to some authors. Metro's reviewers make the case for five writers--from a forgotten Nobel laureate to an unknown pioneer of the avant-garde novel--who deserve a second read.

Lost in the Maize: Guatemala's Miguel Angel Asturias was the father of magic realism and won the Nobel Prize--so why are his books so hard to find?

Words Wild as an Acre of Snakes: Ken Weaver's glossary of Lone Star State expletives and euphemisms is fugging worth searching for.

The Thinking Heart: Etty Hillesum's remarkable Holocaust writings are often lost in the shadow of Anne Frank's famous diary.

Beyond Bond: Forget Fleming; lose Le Carré--Charles McCarry is the undiscovered master of the spy novel.

Joyce on a Mission: Samuel Ornitz--novelist and blacklisted screenwriter--was an unsung pioneer of stream of consciousness.

News: Gays in the Womb
A gay man makes strange bedfellows of anti-abortion crusaders, in preparation for the day when a 'gay gene' can be identified in the unborn.

Reformed Reform: Welfare takes new shape during final negotiations.

Oscar Mayer Whiners: When a protesting pig meets the Wienermobile, the encounter borders on the fantastic.

Public Eye: Fiscalini vacillations.

Polis Report: No underage poking, please.

Sucking on the Movies: Irma Vep unreels a film within a film about French film history.

The Way They Were: Mike Leigh looks back --but not in anger--at the old England in Career Girls. Plus Richard von Busack interviews the two stars of Career Girls, Katrin Cartlidge and Lynda Steadman.

Fame's Hustle: A father's ridicule holds back a son's dreams of stardom in Star Maps.

Talking Pictures: Reformed romance novelist Doris Mortman and husband David take in the thriller Air Force One.

Bright Brits: Techno-punk import the Prodigy speaks to the present rather than the past.

Trip-Hop Magic: The mutant music of Britain's gravel-throated Tricky defies categories at Lollapalooza.

Handling Business: The Jungle Brothers return with Raw Deluxe.

Audiofile: Reviews of the latest CDs by Plateau, Da Organization, Long Hind Legs and Regurgitator.

Beat Street: San Jose's No Use for a Name survives hit single 'Soulmate' to record again.

Cowboys and Grills: Vaquero's, a new chop house in the West Valley, steaks a claim on carnivores' affections with bold Southwestern flavors.