Eye Of The Majestic Creature, Vol. 2   The first story picks up
where the last book left off.  The book is still about the life
of Stein’s surrogate Larrybear, working as a shopgirl in New
York City, living in a roach-infested apartment and spending
time with her anthropomorphic musical instruments. What’s
different is that the first story’s narrative captions are all
taken from Theodore Drieser’s 1900 novel Sister Carrie. The only
real similarity between the two works is that both concern a
young woman trying to make it alone in a big city, but the
circumstances surrounding the protagonists of those works are
quite different. Everything about this issue is dialed down from
previous volume: emotions are more restrained, the magical
realist aspects of the story are far more matter-of-fact, and
the entire story takes on a more plaintive, solemn tone. This is
true of the rest of the book as well, which doesn’t have quite
the sense of loony joy or bar-hopping shenanigans of the first
volume.   The connections tha