In a message dated 98-01-01 17:32:59 EST, you write: << 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! >> In "For Esme", Esme wants a story of squallor, did you see the next story of the Nine Stories, "Pretty Mouth", as that story of squallor, or was that lone oppinion of my high school Directed Studies teacher?