"The Rent Collector"

I read this book for my neighborhood book club, and I was so glad to have other people to discuss it with after I had finished. "The Rent Collector," by Camron Wright, is a mixture of facts and fiction and I wished I had never learned which parts are facts and which ones fiction. My knowledge dissolved some of the illusions that the author tries to build and it lessened the overall importance of this story, unfortunately.

"The Rent Collector" is the tale of a family living in Stung Meanchey, which is the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They pick recyclables out of the mountains of trash each day for income. Once a month, they have to work extra hard to earn enough to not only buy their dinner, but also to pay the rent collector that will be coming around demanding the rent for the small shack that they live in. The main character, Sang Ly, is trying to support her husband, battle the rent collector, while also taking care of their sick child who, no matter how many doctors he sees, is not getting any better. Through an absolutely coincidental moment, Sang Ly discovers that the rent collector, Sopeap Sin, can read. Which is very rare among the people living in Stung Meanchey. Sang Ly convinces Sopeap Sin to teach her to read, and this experience slowly shapes and changes the rest of her life. 

I initially found the story to be inspiring. There were some flaws in the writing that caught my eye, particularly the language the author gives his characters. I wondered how much research went into this work because there are parts of the story that seem distinctly American. Not that I know that much how about how people in Stung Meanchey actually speak and act, but it was things that I knew for certain someone in America would do or say. Then I found out that the author's son did a documentary on this exact story. My assumption is that he put the documentary in his own words, doing little to no extra research, and then added in one or two characters to make his story seem unique. Which leads me to assume that he is either lazy, and piggy-backed on his sons work, or he is a nice dad and did a little extra work simply to give his son's documentary some extra publicity. Either way, I was disappointed in this book and wish that the author would have just come up with his own story for the entire thing. I think that he is a talented writer, but this is definitely not his finest work. 

I would still recommend this book as one worth reading, but I only give it a 3 out of 5 stars for my frustrations mentioned above. This tale that someone can be so kind under such horrible circumstances is truly inspirational, but if you are looking for something that will leave you feeling satisfied at the end, then this is not it. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, so check this one out and report back!