Bernice Rubens is one of our finest Jewish writers and The Elected Member fully bears out that claim. She has a large compassion, and an intelligence which makes her compulsively readable. She is deeply committed, yet objectively truthful, about the Jewish world and people she describes, and neither is patronised by her humour. Her theme is persecution; the 'elected member' is the born victim of a family, the butt and scapegoat of relatives' anxieties and concerns. Norman Zweck, a barrister, is addicted to an hallucinatory drug, and is tortured not only by that but by the reactions to his predicament by those around him…. 'Look after us cold and chosen ones,' Zweck screams to a deity who is difficult for him to identify. The plea and the uncertainty are Miss Rubens's underlying theme and she has made something excellent from it.

David Haworth, "Fathomless Moments," in New...