Thursday, Jan 19, 2023
Interview by Barbara Kanellopolous with Dr. Robert Reece, about his latest book, The Lewellyns from Vincennes
The Lewellyns from Vincennes
Available in print or electronic format from Barnes and Noble, Eight Cousins Bookstore, and Titcomb’s bookstores.
Author Talk with Dr. Robert Reece
Wednesday, January 18th 1pm
The Library presents, in-person, Dr. Robert Reece, author of The Lewellyns from Vincennes, Wednesday, January 18th at 1pm. Dr. Reece will discuss his book, a story of a 20th century family whose lives are buffeted by personal losses, two world wars, the Great Depression, family tragedies and triumphs and the constant outside drumbeat of world events. Based on a true story, its tapestry is woven through with invention of scenes and fictionalized dialogue. It is ultimately a story of redemption and resilience.
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The Lewellyns from Vincennes
Available in print or electronic format from Barnes and Noble, Eight Cousins Bookstore, and Titcomb’s bookstores.
Book Review
By Barbara Kanellopoulos
Dec 30, 2022
‘The Lewellyns From Vincennes‘ Is New Novel From Dr. Robert Reece
Dr. Robert Reece of Falmouth is well-known as the author of three timely novels that persuasively call out certain unethical practices in our law courts, the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry. His new novel is in a different realm altogether; personal and reflective in tone, “The Lewellyns from Vincennes” is a meditation on private life, specifically the private life of a 20th-century American family.
The story is told by Cyrus Lewellyn, who begins his family’s story in 1897 in Indiana’s corn country. Here we meet the genial Dr. Jeremiah Lewellyn [Dr. Lew], crisscrossing Knox County in his horse-drawn buggy to attend to his sick patients. Here, too, is his strange and distant wife, Esther, who has given birth to twin boys, Jack and Cyrus. The boys grow to idolize their father but continue to feel alienated from their mother. In Cyrus’s telling, the strained relationship is eventually resolved but never fully understood.
Throughout his childhood, Jack shadows Dr. Lew on house calls and witnesses what disease does to people. He decides to become a doctor, encouraged by Dr. Lew, who sees Jack as his future replacement. Cyrus is happiest in the public library; his love of reading leads to a career in journalism.
Jack and Cyrus are 13 when, in 1910, Dr. Lewellyn’s undiagnosed diabetes turns fatal. His death has a traumatic effect on the boys. Jack, now the breadwinner in Esther’s eyes, is forced to leave school to work in a local drugstore; his chances of becoming a doctor are now out of reach. Cyrus stays in school and helps out by selling newspapers and cutting lawns. Later, Jack moves to Bloomington to take a job selling Goodyear tires. Cyrus, a high school graduate, works in the newsroom of a local newspaper.
Their paths in life take different directions. In 1918, Jack is with the Marines in France, waiting out the gruesome end of the First World War. Cyrus gets a desk job in Washington, DC. After the war, Jack, now married to the lovely, talented Sarah, is back selling tires while Cyrus, now a graduate of Indiana University, has gained recognition as a journalist.
Their brotherly affection for each other remains strong throughout the novel despite the stark differences in their personalities. One of the novel’s through lines is Cyrus’s growing concern that their father’s untimely death has hardened Jack’s sensibilities. After listening to Jack’s angry complaints about his boss, Cyrus writes, “Growing up, Jack was always stoic, accepted whatever fate laid at his feet, simply worked harder to get past setbacks. He’s given up all hope of being a doctor like Papa. His war journal showed an increasingly gloomy downward trend in his world view.”
The years before 1920 are prologue to the story, which now centers on the new Lewellyn family: Jack and Sarah and their children, John, Martha and Jimmy. Cyrus reports on the happy times—they enjoy coming together in the evening to sing popular songs, backed up by Jack at the piano and Sarah’s beautiful soprano voice—and is saddened by the bad times: there’s never enough money, Jack smokes and drinks too much and has become a prototypical jealous husband. Later in the novel, mourning a death in the family, Jack faces up to his demons.
Cyrus interjects his chronicle of the Lewellyns’ activities with reports of national and world events that, together, are a synopsis of the 20th century. Chapter titles are the names of popular songs that signal the decade’s zeitgeist. We see the Lewellyns in the context of their times. Dr. Lew’s one and only bequest to his sons—the high honor of his life as a doctor—is a felt presence in their lives. It motivates Jack to make sure that his children are well-prepared for medical school.
A central theme of Dr. Reece’s novel is the Lewellyns’ extraordinary cohesiveness. The theme finds expression in Cyrus’s account of the peaks and valleys in their lives together. Buttressed by the love they have for each other, their cohesiveness, though frequently tested, endures. Though they were “scattering east and west” in 1966, they are still together.
The author’s imagined Lewellyns are stand-ins for a real family whose true story, like a faded photograph, is, in Dr. Reece’s words, “clouded by the fog of time.” Using the tools of fiction, he brings that memorable family back to life in his characterization of Cyrus, Jack and Sarah, and their children.
“The Lewellyns from Vincennes” pays homage to the fleeting lives of a family that Dr. Reece once knew. Although it is the story of a particular family, it rings true for many families. In these precarious times, the novel’s affirmation of family life is timely.
“The Lewellyns from Vincennes” is available locally at Eight Cousins Books in Falmouth and Titcomb’s Bookshop in Sandwich.
Dr. Reece’s previous novels are “To Tell the Truth,” “Double Blind Double Cross” and “Strong Medicine.”
Barbara Kanellopoulos is a Falmouth resident and retired educator.
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The Lewellyns From Vincennes
Available in print or electronic format from Barnes and Noble, Eight Cousins Bookstore, and Titcomb’s bookstores.
Book Review
By Pencrafter (an official OnlineBookClub.org review)
4 out of 4 stars
Strong Medicine is a book by Robert Reece. It comprises forty-eight chapters, and it was written in two hundred and eighty-six pages. The book was chiefly inspired by the sole intention to unravel the malpractices in the medical profession.
Robert introduced the lead character, Tom Barrett, who was trained as a trauma surgeon. He was a victim of drug-related malpractice and was severely injured. This cost him one of his arms. Thus, it motivated him to start up a nonprofit corporation known as Pharmatruth, whose mission was to shine a light on questionable practices of pharmaceutical companies, and help health care providers object to misleading information about drug researchers. It also focused on helping people addicted to opiates because a doctor over-prescribed OxyContin or Oxycodone.
This was quite a difficult hurdle to achieve, but with a group of committed individuals willing to work, it seemed easier to navigate. Tom, with the help of George, Dina, Cynthia, and well-meaning individuals, started to put this out in public. They received positive feedback from the people. The process and hurdles towards this feat were elaborately detailed in the book.
There are so many parts of the book I found very commendable. The book was primarily centered on the medical profession, and the apt use of medical terms was very praiseworthy. I enjoyed the plain English employed to explain some terms. The storyline was also very interesting and had a strong aura of originality. It was very relatable when compared to the world of today. I particularly enjoyed the role of Dina, who, despite being in the position to join hands with her employer, Reginald Waner, and enjoy the good things of life, had a reason to fight and try to expose the questionable practice of the pharmaceutical company she worked in. The structure of the chapters and paragraphs is very laudable. I noted with much pleasure the author’s amazing use of punctuation.
The only negative aspect of this book is that I found the frequent use of vulgar words distracting. I did not appreciate this fact at all, and I felt the book could have been better off without most of them. There was nothing else to point to as a negative aspect of this book.
That said, I will rate the book 4 out of 4 stars. Despite the vulgar words being a turnoff, I did not find any other reason why this book should be denied a perfect rating. Also, since I love an exceptionally well-edited book, I was further motivated to give this book a perfect rating because I did not find any errors in it.
It is highly recommended to medical practitioners. I also recommend this book to all adults who have an interest in drug-themed books.
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Strong Medicine
View: on Bookshelves
Strong Medicine is available in print or electronic format from your local bookstore.
Don’t miss this interview on Books and the World (hosted by Robert M. Reece) with Rich Marcello: Cenotaphs (https://youtu.be/Z8HNXcAMqyk)
Books and the World
Interview with Robert M. Reece, M.D.
Don’t miss this interview on Books and the World (hosted by Madeline Miele Holt, Vice President of the Cape Cod Writers Center) with Robert Reece, author of Strong Medicine (https://youtu.be/P0cDq4YVMHk)
Strong Medicine is available in print or electronic format from your local bookstore.
Book Review
By Barbara Kanellopoulos
Falmouth resident Dr. Robert Reece takes on the pharmaceutical industry in his latest novel, “Strong Medicine.” A retired Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Reece writes about what he knows well: the human cost of unethical practices that have become routine for many drug companies. That human cost is at the heart of the novel’s riveting story about one man and his small group of supporters who dare to bring powerful drug corporations to justice.
Dr. Tom Barrett, the novel’s protagonist, appears for the first time in “Double Blind, Double Cross,” the author’s suspenseful prequel to “Strong Medicine.” In that novel, Tom, a war veteran with PTSD, enters a clinical trial to test a new drug designed to block bad memories. When he discovers that the drug company has altered the trial’s findings to protect its profits, he finds himself in a fight for his life.
The Tom Barrett of “Strong Medicine” has changed. Gone is the use of his left arm and gone, too, is his career as a trauma surgeon. He has better control of the PTSD that put an end to his relations with a woman he loved. Now he faces a different challenge: Should he go public with what he knows about the fraudulent practices of greedy drug companies? The novel’s narrator offers a warning:
What Tom was about to launch would put him once more Into the crosshairs of danger from powerful forces, a situation he’d barely survived before. How many near misses does a man have? He’d lost function in his left arm in that fracas. What lay ahead in this new battle?
Fully aware of the risks, he creates Pharma Truth, a non-profit entity whose website calls for people to come forward with their complaints. Dina Robbins, a whistleblower, reports on her company’s collusion with the insurance industry to fix the price of a new drug. Hannah Dorst, afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, can no longer afford her pain medication; it hasn’t changed, she says, but the price keeps going up. Gwen Allen tells of becoming addicted to opiates after minor surgery because her doctor prescribed far more Oxycontin pills than she needed. Dr. Norman Wise confesses to prescribing and promoting specific medicines favored by drug companies in return for expensive gifts and free travel.
The full range of the industry’s harm to the public is spelled out in “Strong Medicine.” Because we see that harm through the lenses of true-to-life characters, it has a human face. We see the injustice not as an abstraction, another of late capitalism’s excesses, but as an urgent call for change. That not all drug companies are predatory is acknowledged. Tom gets this advice from the director of a watchdog group:
(Don’t) see evil everywhere. Most companies try to do the right thing, even though the bottom line is their guiding star. Pick those with the most egregious practices to expose.
The long list of egregious practices is convincing evidence of moral laxity in the pharmaceutical industry. It is personified in Reginald Warner, portrayed as the head of a drug company who plans to market a new life-saving drug at an astronomical price. Members of his executive board offer no resistance to his plan:
“Other companies are doing the same thing, for Chrissake,” Peter Snavely said. “When I was with Reggie at Drum Pharmaceuticals In Texas, we were astounded when the whole EpiPen pricing brouhaha came up. But you know what happened -that completely blew over. The public’s interest in this stuff flags over time.”
Tom knows that the key to reform is public protest. He enlists a team of investigative journalists to publish the stories of Hannah Dorst, Dina Robbins and others, ensuing a groundswell of public interest. Pharma Truth receives over 7,000 hits on its website and a United States Senator takes notice. In the action-filled chapters that follow we’re treated to an in-depth lesson in civics.
How a bill becomes a law is high drama in these pages which read like a script for a show on Netflix. We follow the testimony of Pharma Truth’s witnesses, sensing the tension in the room when senators (whose campaigns are funded by the pharmaceutical industry) address the witnesses with questions that aim to divert attention from the damning evidence.
Cinematic in technique, with frequent changes of scene and focus, “Strong Medicine” is a page-turner. The surprising turn of events in the story bespeaks the author’s attunement to the role that chance plays in the lives of his characters as in our own lives. Just as the events are plausible, so is the diverse cast of characters. They are complex, lifelike. Tom Barrett’s selfhood is evolving as he reinvents himself a second time. In the evil Reginald Warner, who personifies greed (“The report card of life is how much money you have.”) there are signs of redemption.
Dr. Reece’s novel is not only an engaging story about human relationships, It is also a template for citizen action. Margaret Mead is quoted at the end of the book:
”Never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world. Indeed, they are the only ones who ever have.”
Strong Medicine is available in print or electronic format from your local bookstore.
View the recorded interview from Wednesday, November 18th. 2020. In addition to numerous textbooks, Dr. Reece is the author of the novels Double Blind Double Cross, To Tell the Truth and, his most recent book, Strong Medicine (published September 2020). Dr. Reece was interviewed on Zoom by Barbara Kannelopoulos, president of the Board of Directors of FCTV (Falmouth Community Television).
About the author: Robert M. Reece, MD retired as Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and Director of Child Protection, Tufts Medical Center, Boston in 2010.
Don’t miss these interviews on Books and the World (hosted by Robert M. Reece) with Boston Globe Pulitzer Prize winner, Eileen McNamara: Eunice, The Kennedy Who Changed the World (https://youtu.be/EaikM96nXac); and bestselling author, Steven Manchester: Three Shoeboxes (https://youtu.be/XcEszSE62l8)
Interview with Dr. Robert Reece, author of Double Blind Double Cross by Richard Bordurtha on CapeMedia (Cape Cod) on a program called “Books and The World.”
You can view the video here
Double Blind Double Cross can be ordered from your local bookstore.
Dr. Reece welcomes invitations to talk about “Double Blind Double Cross” with book clubs, veterans’ organizations and other groups. Please go to the contact page to make arrangements.
Double Blind Double Cross can be ordered from your local bookstore.
Monday, Sept 18 at 4:00pm
Interview with Dr. Robert Reece, author of Double Blind Double Cross by Barbara Kanellopolous
Falmouth Community Television (FCTV)
Double Blind Double Cross can be ordered from your local bookstore.
Wednesday, Jan 18 at 6:30pm
Literary Arts Group of the Sandwich Arts Alliance presents
Author Talk with Dr. Robert Reece, author of To Tell the Truth
Sandwich Public Library, 142 Main Street, Sandwich Village
The Sandwich Arts Alliance is proud to present Dr. Robert M. Reece reading from his novel, To Tell the Truth. He will discuss this poignant courtroom drama and field questions from the audience.
Dr. Reece has made a career combining medical research and advocacy in the field of child abuse. He is the former director of the Child Protection Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and has held similar positions at Boston City Hospital and Rainbow Babies’ and Children’s Hospital at Case Western Reserve University. He has edited major medical books addressing child abuse and published numerous articles and book chapters on the subject.
Dr. Reece garnered his considerable expertise and experience on the subject of abusive head trauma, sometimes called “Shaken Baby Syndrome,” in writing To Tell the Truth, which describes the fictional case of a young babysitter charged with the second-degree murder of a seven-month-old infant in her care. The story takes the reader from the infant’s sudden collapse through the harrowing hospital course and arrest and trial of the babysitter. The courtroom drama highlights medical testimony that is irresponsible, far from expert, and at times simply dishonest. Judicial decisions are surprising and border on the bizarre. A veteran child abuse pediatrician who has watched this trial from start to finish offers his prescription for changing the process of qualifying experts in medical trials.
To Tell The Truth can be ordered from your local bookstore.
Dr. Reece is available for readings and discussions of “To Tell The Truth” in bookstores, reading groups, professional groups, or civic engagements. Please go to the contact page to make arrangements.