Tommy Can You Hear Me?

Book excerpt: A Novel, based on real people and actual events. What drove Tommy Lewis to commit suicide? Why did he want to die? In Tommy Can You Hear Me? Ginny Lewis weaves the story of Tommy's life, his journey into schizophrenia and his ultimate suicide. This riveting drama, based on Lewis' own family story and that of her older brother, begins with two toddlers whose lives are drastically altered when they are taken to Saint John's Orphanage, where they and their siblings spend the next four months and ends 23 years later, with the Lewis family dealing with the suicide of one of their own. Lewis pulls the reader into the story, tipping the scales of time and space, with her sue of first person, present-tense narrative, colloquialisms and direct no-frills language.