The Elected Member
The Elected Member is the title of a novel by Bernice Rubens . The book was a bestseller and was awarded the English Booker Prize in 1970. The novel The Elected Member , written by Bernice Rubens in 1969 , is set in London in the 1960s. The focus is on Norman Zweck, a 41-year-old drug addict, and his Jewish family who are trying to cope with his addiction.
Table of contents
As a Jewish refugee, Norman's father Abraham came to London, where he soon started a family, Norman as the eldest son and two sisters. Norman becomes the model child of the family. At nine he speaks six languages, at twelve he speaks nine languages. That arouses media attention. Soon he is a lawyer whose trials are followed with great interest. In private, Norman falls in love with his long-time school friend David. This gets engaged to Norman's sister Esther, which throws Norman mentally off the rails. He isolates himself. When Esther runs away with another non-Jewish man, David takes his own life. Norman finds the dead man and goes into psychological shock. To suppress this experience, he takes the highly addictive hallucinogen amphetamine. The consequences are the almost complete withdrawal from the real world and a drift into an unreal world with hallucinations. After several years of consumption and attempts to get clean, it is down again. Norman's father and the family doctor decide to admit him to a psychiatric clinic. In the clinic, Norman continues to get amphetamine and consume it, which is why there is no improvement in sight. The book ends with the death of Norman's bed neighbor and drug supplier and the death of Norman's father, whom Norman's admission had made mentally unstable.
writing style
Thanks to Bernice Rubens' narrative form quickly changing perspective, all characters are very transparent, and it is easy to put yourself in both Norman's dependency and the mood of your loved ones.