Table of Contents
TL;DR
Bernice Rubens’ The Elected Member is a darkly comic and psychologically intense portrait of family dysfunction, mental breakdown, and communal claustrophobia, set within London’s Orthodox Jewish community. The novel focuses on Norman Zweck, a once-celebrated barrister now bedridden and hallucinating in the wake of a prescription drug addiction.
As the story unravels, so too does the illusion of family unity, revealing long-standing trauma, control, and repression within the Zweck household. Rubens’ sharp prose explores the dual pressures of individual aspiration and communal expectation with painful clarity. The book is compact but layered, marked by disturbing detail and flashes of black humour. A compelling read for anyone interested in novels that tackle mental health, familial roles, and cultural identity, The Elected Member offers insight into both personal decline and the suffocating expectations that can accompany being “the chosen one”.
First Thoughts
Reading The Elected Member unexpectedly triggered a strange form of recognition. Rubens’ depiction of a tightly bound Orthodox Jewish family in East London echoed my own past experience living near Stamford Hill, where the intensity and separateness of the community were palpable.
The novel’s claustrophobic setting and internal family dynamics felt both alien and oddly familiar. My memories of raising a child amid neighbouring communities—Muslim, Jewish, secular—bubbled up with each page, particularly the tension between assimilation and isolation that Rubens captures so well.
The book begins with the collapse of Norman Zweck, once the family’s great hope, now a hallucinating addict. His brilliance was so prized that his mother manipulated his age to keep him in childhood, with disturbing consequences for both him and his sister Bella.
The early chapters do not build towards tragedy—they begin with it, and then unspool the dysfunctions that led there. Rubens is never sentimental; she writes with comic sharpness, but the themes are deadly serious: the burden of expectation, the loneliness of genius, and the pressures of community. I hadn’t read Rubens before, despite her Booker win and prolific career. I won’t make that mistake again.
About the Book
Published in 1969, The Elected Member was the second novel to win the Booker Prize, making Bernice Rubens the first woman to receive the award. The novel centres on Norman Zweck, a once-promising barrister now confined to his bed, tormented by visions of silverfish and imprisoned by addiction and grief. The narrative is told through shifting perspectives—Norman, his father Rabbi Zweck, his sister Bella, and other peripheral characters—unfolding the family’s collective past and psychological entrapments.
Set in the heart of London’s Orthodox Jewish community, the book depicts a family that once pinned its hopes on Norman’s brilliance. His fall from grace coincides with the death of his mother, a figure whose overbearing love destabilised her children. Bella, the ignored daughter, has spent her life in the service of others, while her estranged sister Esther remains a ghostly figure whose absence speaks volumes.
Rubens’ writing is taut, unsentimental, and often laced with dry wit. The setting is intimate, almost stifling, and the themes—madness, duty, disappointment—play out within the suffocating confines of a flat that feels as much a prison as a home. The Elected Member is not a sprawling narrative but a compact psychological study, quietly devastating in its revelations.
What Others Think
BookerTalk describes The Elected Member as “a grim but powerful story”, highlighting Rubens’ “economical style” and “bleak but compelling view of family life”. The review notes how Rubens avoids melodrama, instead using sharp detail and controlled pacing to illuminate mental deterioration and familial repression. Norman’s hallucinations are described not just as surreal, but heartbreakingly tethered to his emotional trauma.
The review also places Rubens in the broader context of Booker Prize history, acknowledging her as a somewhat overlooked figure despite her win. While not as widely known today as contemporaries like Iris Murdoch or Beryl Bainbridge, Rubens is praised for her daring subject matter and complex character work. The site comments on the novel’s “intimate claustrophobia”, a phrase that perfectly captures the book’s tone.
The general consensus appears to be that The Elected Member is an underrated gem—quiet, intense, and emotionally resonant. Some readers may find the story’s darkness and character cruelty a bit relentless, but most recognise it as a psychologically astute and unique contribution to post-war British fiction.
Themes, Style & Impact
At its heart, The Elected Member is about mental illness, familial obligation, and the stifling weight of cultural expectation. Rubens explores how a community’s need to uphold its own internal cohesion—especially one as tightly bound as London’s Orthodox Jewish community—can suppress individual expression and feed hidden dysfunction.
Norman’s fall is not merely personal, but symbolic: the “elected member” of the title suggests both pride and sacrifice. His talent is consumed by the very structures that elevate him. Similarly, Bella’s invisibility is enforced by a family hierarchy that values sons over daughters, brilliance over service.
Stylistically, Rubens is concise and unflinching. Her prose avoids flourish but cuts deeply. There are moments of absurdity and dry humour, but the tone remains unsentimental. Her depiction of hallucination—giant silverfish crawling on the walls—is surreal yet grounded in emotional truth.
The novel bears comparison to the work of early Doris Lessing or even Philip Roth, though Rubens is perhaps less showy. The domestic drama is small in scale but large in implication. She forces readers to sit with discomfort—especially around gender, religion, and mental health—without offering resolution.
Final Thoughts
Reading The Elected Member was a surprise. I expected a period piece, perhaps even something slight, and instead encountered a slow, unrelenting psychological novel with echoes of my own life and memories. Rubens captures not only the specific dynamics of an Orthodox Jewish family, but universal questions about love, sacrifice, control, and failure.
The novel’s structure—starting with collapse and working backwards—is masterfully executed. We see Norman not as a mystery to solve, but as a symptom of decades-long emotional rot. That makes the novel emotionally difficult, but all the more satisfying.
Though I hadn’t heard of Rubens before, her ability to compress such weighty themes into a slim volume is impressive. For those charting a path through the Booker winners, The Elected Member offers not just literary quality but genuine insight into communities and issues that still resonate today.
Further Reading
- Something to Answer For by P.H. Newby – The previous Booker winner, referenced for its unexpected selection and obscurity
- Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth – Another novel exploring Jewish identity and psychological repression
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – A key literary work dealing with mental illness and societal pressure
- The Outsider by Albert Camus – Mentioned in earlier blog posts; relevant for themes of alienation and dislocation