(There are further revelations about Sopeap Sin’s attempts to atone at the end of The Rent Collector.) She’s haunted by what she had to do to survive the Khmer Rouge, to the point where she won’t pursue further treatment for her cancer. The only character in The Rent Collector that rang true to me was Sopeap Sin, former literature professor/Khmer Rouge victim/rent collector.

If my book club hadn’t picked this book for this month, I would have dropped it within twenty pages. Most of the exposition sounds like it comes straight out of a journalistic exposé. Sang Ly’s character wavers between illiterate naif and precocious savant. While there are some beautiful moments towards the end of The Rent Collector, the book did not work for me. Over a few short chapters, a rough friendship developed between the renter and the landlady. The grouchy drunk Sopeap reluctantly agrees, because the book has sentimental value for her. Sang Ly believes that education (via reading) will help the family find a way out of Stung Meanchay. In exchange for the book, Sopeap Sin will teach Sang Ly how to read. The book leads to a bargain between Sang Ly and the rent collector, Sopeap Sin. But everything changes on the day the rent collector threatens them with eviction when Sang Ly finds a children’s book among the trash. Their son is constantly ill and the family often have to use their rent money to pay for medicine.

Most of their money goes to pay the rent for their shack on the borders of the dump. Sang Ly and her husband, Ki Lim, eke out a living picking recyclables out of the garbage. Camron Wright’s uneven tale of redemption and education, The Rent Collector, is set in the very real garbage dump of Stung Meanchay, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The rent collector book