Literary Quarterly: The Invisible Author
Gravity's Rainbow novelist Thomas Pynchon is so intensely private that his very existence has been called into question. John Yewell has been on the case of the reclusive writer for 20 years.

Filth: The author of Trainspotting looks at Edinburgh's seamy side from the other side of the tracks.

Memories of My Father Watching TV: Curtis White undercovers social truths by the light of the television set.

Flight of the Crow: Sunnyvale novelist Paul Clayton keeps his books afloat with the help of the Internet.

The Farming of Bones: Love on the banks of the Haitian Massacre.

Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51: The heart of the alien mythology still beats in Area 51.

News: Field of Dreams
The burgeoning city of Morgan Hill hopes to join the municipal big leagues by planting high tech in its open fields. But not everyone agrees.

Metropolis News Extras

• Campbell: The conspiracy to undermine Clinton and Lyndon LaRouche.
  
• Los Gatos: Developer loses legal brawls.
  
• Saratoga: The menace of eucalyptus trees.
  
• San Jose: Anti-nukes activist Dr. Helen Caldicott speaks at Mission College.

The Ho Truth: A sex worker-turned-seminar leader talks about goddesses, sex and virgin men.

Bad Guys, Good Art: History's worst villains prove that truth is stranger than comic fiction in the Big Book series.

Beck to the Future: The boy wonder of rock maintains his hip quotient.

Brags to Riches: Time won't wait for San Mateo rap artist Rasco.

Some Kind of a Movie: The re-edited Touch of Evil enhances Orson Welles' noir classic with new narrative unity.

Humbert Humbug: Lolita is a brave but glum take on Nabokov.

Wild Oafs: A huge cast sinks Stanley Tucci's Imposters.

Sizzle Shtick: At two new Mongolian BBQ pits, you pick the ingredients and then sit back and watch the show.

L.A. Story: The patois trumps the plot in Mizlansky/Zilinsky.