content: Bernice Rubens' novels are difficult to find here in America but are definitely worth reading.The Elected Member is about the Zweck family, a well-to-do Orthodox Jewish family in England, and how it slowly disintegrated because of their firm hold onto their culture. The novel centers on the eldest son Norman who once was a top lawyer, but had to be admitted to a mental instituion after suffering a nervous breakdown. But what causes his breakdown? Was it his parents who simply hold onto him too tightly? His 2 sisters whom he committed crimes of the heart against? Rubens expertly transport us to the Zwecks' family past and slowly reveals how past mistakes can come back to haunt everyone in a family.