SOURCE: "Strange Poems of God's Mercy: The Lowry Short Stories," in The Art of Malcolm Lowry, edited by Anne Smith, Vision Press, 1978, pp. 156-68.

In the following essay, Bareham views the stories in Hear Us O Lord as interconnected.

Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place stands at a crossroads in Lowry's output. From this point, down one broad highway, stretches the main vista of his work—the achievement of Under the Volcano, the promise and near-fulfilment of the posthumous novels. But down other dark sideroads which diverge from here, we can be led a pretty dance through the quirkishness, the personal allusions and the occult world of Lowry at his most obscure and introspective. All his work is inter-connected. This makes the volume richly rewarding for the Lowry specialist, but may be daunting for the reader who comes to him for the first time through...