I think that the way Salinger set up nine stories was, in a sense, a cycle. I tried reading 9 Stories as one complete novel, one story, and it comes out as a remarkably coherant peice of experimental literature! Each peice revealed more and more about the nature of Seymours Suicide, with Teddy putting it all together into a tight finish which made things remarkably understandable. They may not be the same soul, but I think its a remarkable case of synchronicity, but that synchronicity runs through the whole book. Just my opinion, probably not much of an answer -ecas