61 pages • 2 hours read
Lisa ScottolineThe Truth about the Devlins
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Family and Business
The Truth About the Devlins explores the ways that family relationships and dynamics affect a family business. Devlin & Devlin, the family law firm, was started by Paul and Marie, and as their children have grown up, each has joined the firm in some capacity: John and Gabby as lawyers, and TJ as an investigator. The personal dynamics of the family are therefore embedded in the firm. This leads to a blurring of boundaries that confuses all the family members, especially TJ, who is on the fringes of the business. As he notes, “I hadn’t thought of it as my business, but in a way, it was my business. At least it was my family. Anyway it was my family business, which was confusing” (105). Scottoline explores the impact of these blurred boundaries throughout the novel, showing how working together affects the family on both personal and professional levels.
John, Gabby, and TJ’s roles in the family were established in childhood and haven’t changed since then. This is especially true of John and TJ—as TJ puts it, “I was the Bad Son and John was the Good Son. Our roles in our family are like our seats at the kitchen table. Forever” (4). Paul and Marie’s inability to see John and TJ objectively as colleagues or employees clouds their perception of their sons’ professional conduct, leading to tragic consequences for both the family and the firm. Because John is the “Good Son,” he operates with impunity and without oversight until TJ and Gabby force Paul and Marie to recognize the injustice and illegality of his actions. Conversely, Paul’s extreme disappointment and lack of trust in TJ as a son makes it easy for John to manipulate him into believing that every crime John has committed is actually TJ’s. Because of this long-standing dynamic, when TJ finally discovers the truth about John, John can outright lie and refute his claims, and Paul automatically believes John, firing TJ and kicking him out of the house.
The family’s understanding of Gabby’s role in the family also influences the way they treat her in the family law firm. From the beginning of the novel, the entire family sees Gabby, who often takes pro bono cases, as a bleeding heart. When Gabby is first introduced in the novel, she claims that TJ is working for her; when Paul asks why he didn’t know, Gabby replies, “Because it’s on that pro bono case you hate!” (18). When Paul asks which one, she replies, “What’s the difference? You hate them all!” (18). Because they don’t take Gabby seriously, they fail to recognize the danger she poses to them and their firm. They repeatedly dismiss or ignore her anger and frustration at the family’s misconduct, and when she calls the FBI to hold John accountable for his crimes they are completely unprepared. This failure to reckon with Gabby and her code of ethics has ramifications not just for John but for the whole family. With her drastic move, Gabby brings about the end of the family firm.
However, while Paul and Marie’s perspective as parents unfairly biases them in regard to their children, at the end of the novel, they realize that they’ve let the family dynamic bleed into the family business and try to change. They show up at Gabby’s press conference in a show of support that ends up saving her life. In the chapters that follow, as John pleads guilty and the family firm disintegrates, the Devlins are definitively separated from the business and are able to reshape their dynamic in a healthier way.
The Intersection of Justice and Privilege
Although justice is supposed to be available to all equally in the American legal system, wealth and privilege often afford advantages. The Truth About the Devlins explores how justice and privilege intersect in the American legal system through the prominent and privileged Devlin family.
In using TJ Devlin as narrator, the novel illustrates how privilege protects some people more than others. TJ is the only family member with experience on the criminal side of the legal system. As such, he is fully aware of how his own privilege would have allowed him to escape accountability if he hadn’t taken the matter out of his parents’ hands. By pleading guilty to his crime, which Gabby refers to as his “best moment,” TJ accepted responsibility for his actions and refused the escape route offered by his privilege.
TJ’s sister Gabby has a somewhat different understanding of how privilege and justice intersect, informed by her years of professional experience as a lawyer. She often takes on pro bono cases, defending plaintiffs who can’t pay for legal defense, and the Holmesburg case is a prime example of how privilege—or lack thereof—interacts with the legal system. The men who were the subject of medical experiments were taken advantage of because they were incarcerated, but also, she notes, because they belonged to marginalized populations that didn’t have the social standing to demand justice. The novel offers the specific example of Joe Ferguson, based on a real-life plaintiff, who was in jail for a year awaiting trial because he couldn’t afford bail, and consented to the experiment to try to save enough money to make bail. The novel highlights the injustice of the Holmesburg case by showing it through TJ’s perspective. While he is familiar with the legal protections that privilege affords, he is outraged to learn how people with less privilege are treated by the legal system. Hearing about the Holmesburg Prison controversy for the first time, he asks, “So where’s the justice?” (151). Gabby points out that he sounds like a “public-interest lawyer,” and in the end, it is this case that motivates TJ to become a lawyer and “work for justice” (370).
The connection between justice and privilege is also shown in the responses of the defendants in the Holmesburg case: They refuse to settle, believing that their privileged status will allow them to escape justice. Even when Dr. Bostwick is caught trying to kill Gabby and TJ, he chooses to go to trial, thinking that he will prevail because of his social standing. Although TJ’s commitment to justice for all suggests that legal reform is possible, the novel tempers that optimism with the actions of these defendants, who still think that their privilege puts them above the law.
The Journey from Addiction to Recovery
The Truth About the Devlins delves into the complicated process of recovery through TJ’s personal journey. Although TJ experiences moments of doubt and even a relapse, the novel highlights how his introspection, his support network, and his perseverance all contribute to his recovery.
TJ is a thoughtful man, and his ability to step outside a situation and see it from a new perspective is fundamental to his recovery. At the beginning of the novel, TJ believes that he is “solid in [his] sobriety” after 708 days without drinking (18). It means everything to him that he has been in recovery for nearly two years, and while he still doubts his ability to be a father because of what he did to Carrie and Emily, he takes tentative steps toward believing he can have a family with his adoption of Mango. When he relapses and misses Mango’s insulin shot, he is disgusted with himself—looking in the mirror, he is “horrified at the wretch in [his] reflection” (254). However, on the heels of this observation, he has the revelation that his reflection shows a lack of self-care, and he “hadn’t taken care of Mango because when [he] drank, [he] wasn’t taking care of [himself]” (254). TJ’s ability to see himself from a new perspective is what allows him to both forgive himself and to use the experience to recommit to his recovery.
For TJ, another crucial element of his recovery is his support network. He sees his regular AA meeting, his “home group,” as truly his home, and the place where he feels like he isn’t alone. As TJ’s life begins to crumble, he utilizes his network, calling his sponsor, Jake, to help him. Jake offers another perspective shift that helps TJ see his situation in a new light. When he bemoans the difficulty of his life, Jake says, “This is why you got sober, TJ. […] You didn’t do any of these things before. All you did was drink” (144). He also says, “Credit yourself for dealing with challenges you never did before. Be patient with yourself. […] Welcome to life” (144). Jake shows TJ that these challenges reflect the strides he has made in recovery, which encourages him to keep engaging with his life.
However, the most important element of TJ’s recovery is his perseverance. TJ continually recommits to his recovery and works at it consistently throughout the novel. Even after he relapses when he is at his lowest, he resolves, “I was going to stay sober and get myself out of trouble” (256). This resolution leads him to visit Nancy at the beach, and his swim in the ocean is the final step, as he determines to “get back to meetings and stay sober one day at a time” (267). His ability to persevere despite his setbacks gives TJ the ability to move forward with his recovery. TJ’s layered and complex experience illustrates some of the crucial components of the journey from addiction to recovery.
Related Titles
By Lisa Scottoline
