Rubens deftly uses her humor to lay bare the sadness of this life, made sadder because Norman could not see it himself. Refresh and try again. Please try again. A member nominated to the House by the President, however, is allowed to join a political party if he/she does so within the first six months of taking the seat in the House. Hello Select your address All Hello, Sign in. The novel is also about the difficulties the close knit Jewish family has in coping with modern life and religious traditions. Infant prodigy; brilliant barrister; the apple of his parents' eyes... until at forty-one he becomes a drug addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of his hallucinations and paranoia. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published The Elected Member of this novel is Norman Zweck, the cherished high-achieving son of a Jewish family in 1960s London. This book is amazing on so many levels. A shorter book but definitely worthwhile. As a child, Norman Zweck was a prodigy. Ultimately, he finds both his come. A very well written tale of a dysfunctional family written long before such tales became fashionable. He spends his days in his parents' old bedroom, locked away from his father and younger sister, popping amphetamine pills in a futile attempt to keep his demons at bay. Elected Member Roles Collective duties of the Council. While reading the book, one can get a sense that parallel plots are orbiting the primary plot all the time but you never can quite put your finger on exactly what they are. The Elected Member (Paperback) Bernice Rubens. For Rbbi Zweck, Norman's father, his son's deterioration is a bitter reminder of his own guilt and failure. . Brothers and sisters hooking up is one of them. As we journey with them we discover more and more of the family story which has brought them to this place of despair. Why have I never heard of this author before? It has moments of humour as when the barrister concerned veers off into florid insanity in the midst of his cross-examination of a witness. Heart warming. When we first meet him he is delusional and distraught, and his father and sister have to take the extraordinarily difficult decision to have him committed to a psychiatric hospital. Infant prodigy; brilliant barrister; the apple of his parents' eyes... until at forty-one he becomes a drug addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of his hallucinations and paranoia. This book is a revelation. But the book opens with him addicted to amphetamines, his legal career in tatters as he hallucinates. Rubens conveys the anguish, the guilt, the desperation of each character, the complicated dance between wanting to protect the broken family member and wanting to get help. Bernice Rubens (1928-2004) was born in Wales and began writing in her middle thirties when the kids went to school. Bernice Rubens died in 2004 aged 76. What a beautifully written book with a tragi-comic perspective about a Jewish family whose son, Norman, has been committed to a mental hospital after repeated bouts with drug abuse. The Elected Member is Norman, the extraordinary but increasingly troubled son of a Lithuanian Jewish Rabbi in 1960s London. The reader is taken through the depressing and exasperating experience of a Drug addict and his close family members. The European Parliament is made up of 705 Members elected in the 27 Member States of the enlarged European Union. “Something had to happen between them. A member elected as an independent candidate shall be disqualified if he joins any political party after his election. The father, Rabbi Zweck accedes to his wife’s wishes. To see what your friends thought of this book. A different, but powerful take on the push to succeed in a new land, and the potential trauma and grief that might result from this experience which millions of families have gone through. 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