The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens [book review]
I’ve just finished reading The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens; the second winner of the Booker Prize.
This is an author about whom I knew absolutely zero before I picked up the book. Then I discovered that she was born in Cardiff which is about 12 miles from my home. So a local in a sense and yet I hadn’t even heard of her. Oops.
Some quick searches on the Internet filled in some blanks however. The Guardian’s obituary gives some fascinating insights into Bernice Rubens’ approach to writing and the themes at the heart of her work.
“I feel unclean if I don’t write,” she said once. “I don’t love writing. But I love having written.” What fascinated her was human relationships, particularly those within a family. She once remarked that, ‘I am concerned with the communication, or non-communication as is more often the case, between people and families’.
In Janet Watts’ obituary she said Bernice Rubens
… showed the horrors that can lie behind net curtains and cosiness, polite conversation or an unexplained wink.
I didn’t detect any ‘horror’ in The Elected Member though Bernice Rubens certainly reveals the secrets behind the curtains of a seemingly respectable Jewish family and the misery they endure when they see their beloved son/brother suffer the effects of drug addiction. But ‘horror’ would be over-stating it.
The Elected Member started with a lot of promise. The first scenes depict the son of the household, Norman, waking up after another tortuous night. He believed his room is invaded by silver fish. Even though it’s some weeks since I read the book I can still picture those shimmering things crawling their way from the skirting board.
I liked the way Bernice Rubens let her story unfold gradually, peeling back the layers of the family to reveal some of the underlying problems and the answers to some mysteries (why does the daughter persist in wearing little white socks well into adulthood?).
But the ending was disappointing. It was just too neatly wrapped up in some cathartic coming together of the remaining family members united at the deathbed of the patriarch and (we are led to imagine); with Norman cleansed. Hmm…
And the verdict?
Good in parts but not wonderful.
Footnote – added February 2017
I read The Elected Member – the winner of the Booker Prize in 1970 – as part of my Booker Prize Project in which I set out to read all the winners since the prize was initiated in 1969.
I completed the project in 2020. You can read my thoughts on the experience and discover which were my favourite Booker Prize winners and which were the 10 dullest and dreariest reads.
The Elected Member - a powerful exploration of mental health and cultural expectation - Chatterton Books
[…] 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. […]
Sample Sunday: Life Changing Decisions : BookerTalk
[…] from Wales to have won The Booker Prize. I wasn’t terribly keen on the winning novel — The Elected Member but dislike it so much that I ruled out reading another book by Bernice Rubens. A Five Year […]
5 Reasons For Book Blogging Celebration : BookerTalk
[…] It took two days before I got my first comment. It was a reaction to my review of The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens. […]
Top Ten Tuesday: The First Ten Books I Reviewed | BookerTalk
[…] The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens. The very first review to appear on this blog, was this 1970 winner. It’s embarrassing to look back at this review – I clearly had a lot to learn… […]
Man Booker Prize shortlist 2018: reaction | BookerTalk
[…] We’ve had a Welsh author before who actually won the prize (Bernice Rubens in 1970 with The Elected Member) but never two on the same list. Ok the purists among you might say there is only one since unlike […]
Dan
I found both Rubens’ Madame Sousatzka and her A Five Year Sentence (published as Favors in the US) more gripping than The Elected Member. Both are excellent, with memorable characters. Rubens didn’t shy away from portraying older people in unflattering ways. Brendan King’s new biography of Beryl Bainbridge has some interesting anecdotes about Rubens’ long-standing friendship with Bainbridge.
BookerTalk
I’ve heard many positive comments about the Five Year Sentence so need to take a closer look at that.
Suggestions for authors from Wales | BookerTalk
[…] Wales to win the Booker prize. She was actually the first woman to win the prize with her novel The Elected Member. It was one of the first books I read as part of my Booker Prize project – good in parts but […]
Laura
I’m sorry you didn’t like this one! I didn’t expect to like it and was surprised how much I did. It does seem like some of the older winners don’t stand the test of time, though.
kheenand
I didn’t dislike it just didn’t grab me that much though the silver fish imagery just keeps coming back into my head. Wish it would go away!