ny times book review the rent collector

Bucket List Book Reviews

Miz Parker’s Quest to Read Every Book on the List "1,001 Books to Read Before You Die."

The Rent Collector

Author: Camron Wright Winner: 2012 Book of the Year Gold Winner (Foreword Magazine), 2012 Best Novel of the Year (Whitney Awards), Honorable Mention (Great Southwest Book Festival), 2013 One Read Selection (California Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society of Outstanding Women Educators) Original Publication: 2012 Genre: Fiction

The Rent Collector takes place in Cambodia in the aftermath of the Pol Pot / Khmer Rouge Communist regime. Sang Ly and her husband, Ki Lim, are “pickers”; that is, they live in a shantytown in Stung Meanchey, the garbage dump outside Phnom Penh, and make their living picking through the trash for recyclables. Owing to their poor living conditions, their infant son, Nisay, is chronically ill. Their existence is punctuated once per month by the appearance of the rent collector, Sopeap Sin. Sopeap Sin is an elderly, unpleasant and often drunk woman who squeezes every last dime from the residents of Stung Meanchey. Like all tenants, they pay in order to avoid being thrown into the street, which actually seems marginally better to me than living in a tarpaper shack atop a burning pile of garbage.

One day, Ki Lim is robbed by a roving gang and when Sopeap Sin arrives to collect the rent, Sang Ly is unable to pay. Ki Lim did manage to bring home a book, thinking that the illustrations would at least amuse Nisay. The Khmer Rouge executed much of the educated populace in favor of easily controlled poor, so nobody they know is able to read. Sopeap Sin threatens the family, but when she glimpses Nisay’s book, she falls to her knees, greedily thumbing through it, and Sang Ly begins to suspect that Sopeap Sin can secretly read. The two strike up a bargain, and Sopeap Sin agrees to teach Sang Ly. Sang Ly quickly discovers that Sopeap Sin not only can read, but is highly educated and knows all about literature. They begin reading and discussing stories.

Meanwhile, Sang Ly has dreamed that the Healer in her home province holds the key to Nisay’s health, and the family begins to make plans to travel there. When they return, Sopeap Sin has disappeared and they discover that she is gravely ill. Sang Ly and her family immediately set about finding her and solving the mystery of who she really is before her time runs out.

Fun Fact: The story is fiction, but Stung Meanchey, Sang Ly and her family, and many of the other characters in the story are real. The Rent Collector was based on a documentary called River of Victory . The author wove a fictional story about the actual people, imagining what might happen if a family under those circumstances were given the gift of literacy. Stung Meanchey closed in 2009 and an alternate dump was opened, upon which no homes are allowed. Most of the pickers who lived there are now on the streets of Phnom Penh.

Bother if: I read this novel in a sitting, and may have teared up a few times. It’s a truly wonderful story; some say about the triumph and perseverance of the human spirit. It is, but I didn’t see it that way. I saw it as an homage to the written word, and the story of a woman who begins to realize that stories – her stories, her neighbor’s stories, all written stories – are the key to her freedom at least spiritually, if not physically. It is her literacy which makes every opportunity possible. It is her literacy which opens up her entire worldview. I particularly enjoyed a section where Sang Ly laments that either she doesn’t understand Moby Dick, or Herman Melville was a terrible writer, because ‘good’ and ‘evil’ to her are fairly concrete concepts. After an incident which is anything but black and white, Sang Ly reflects on Moby Dick, realizing that Herman Melville understood the human experience perfectly after all – no hero is all good, and no villain is all evil.

Don’t bother if: There isn’t anything inordinately offensive about this book. I thought it was a very engaging story, but the subject matter is necessarily grim. I’m not sure I’ve read a story about a more destitute group of people. Destitute, however, does not equal hopeless. That said, “feel good” stories aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, either. As for me, I didn’t think I’d be at all interested in the depressing subject matter, and would not have ever chosen to read this without the catalyst of a book club meeting to spur me on, but I am pleased to have read it. I am, however, a sucker for homages to literature.

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“Literacy is the natural human pursuit of the evolved.” ~Billy Baroo~

THE RENT COLLECTOR

Adapted for young readers from the best-selling novel.

by Camron Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 2022

A story of survival that is most effective when it comes to showing the power of reading.

Inspired by a true story, this young readers’ edition of a 2012 title for adults focuses on a family living in a large garbage dump on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Sang Ly, the woman at the heart of the story, says, “The clock is broken, so its time never changes.” This is a metaphor for her life in Stung Meanchey, where she sorts through the trash for recyclables and endures daily struggles. Sang Ly’s life turns a corner when she offers Sopeap Sin, “a bitter, angry woman” who collects rent from the dump’s residents for local landlords, a discarded children’s book in lieu of payment. This marks the beginning of a genuine relationship between the two, a journey through language and literature. As Sang Ly haltingly learns to read from Sopeap, she becomes determined to give her ailing son an education and starts to interpret the world through the written word. In this way, she begins to take control; for his part, her husband, Ki Lim, carries a knife to defend their family from gangs. Most powerful here is the matryoshka-doll–like format of stories within stories that highlight the power of literacy. Unfortunately, in explaining the book’s context, the author’s note prefacing the story asks readers, “What if you lived in a garbage dump?” and “Worse, what if you couldn’t read?” which has the effect of othering the protagonists.

Pub Date: April 5, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-62972-985-5

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Shadow Mountain

Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

Share your opinion of this book

by Louis Sachar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...

Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar ( Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger , 1995, etc.).

Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5

Page Count: 233

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

More by Louis Sachar

WAYSIDE SCHOOL BENEATH THE CLOUD OF DOOM

BOOK REVIEW

by Louis Sachar ; illustrated by Tim Heitz

by Louis Sachar

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 1.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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Reading Challenges

The rent collector by camron wright.

Posted January 3, 2024 by jrsbookr in Historical fiction / 0 Comments

Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not really working. Just when things seem most bleak, Sang Ly learns a secret about the hated, ill-tempered woman, the "the rent collector"-she can read Reluctantly she agrees to teach Sang Ly and does so with the same harshness she applied to her collection duties until they both learn how literacy has the power to instill hope and transcend circumstance. Based on a true story, set in the abject poverty of Cambodia against the backdrop of political oppression and the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

Why I Read This Book:

I joined a new to be me challenge called In Case You Missed It and it goal to read one of the best books out of each year from 2012-2023 from a list generated by the owners of the challenge. If you like more infomation you can get that at Book Girls Guide.

Also this book was one of my netgalley backlist books so it worked for both challenges.

The Rent Collector is one of those novels you pick up at just the right time, and it cleanses your soul to the core of who you are. As my first read for 2024, it did just that, as I read about a family who lives in the dump in Cambodia and a mother’s desperate attempt to learn to read to hopefully open up more doors for herself and her young son. Read if you are tired of hopelessness, read if you believe in redemption even in the hardest of hearts, and read if you love reading. This book will give you all the feels and make you even more grateful for the life you have, the life you will have, and the life you share with those you interact with.

About Cameron Wright

Camron Wright was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has a master’s degree in Writing and Public Relations from Westminster College. He has owned several successful retail stores in addition to working with his wife in the fashion industry, designing for the McCall Pattern Company in New York.

Camron says he began writing to get out of attending MBA school, and it proved the better decision. His first book, Letters for Emily, was a Readers Choice Award winner, as well as a selection of the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. Letters for Emily has been published in North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Korea, the Netherlands, and China.

The Rent Collector, his second book, won Best Novel of the Year from the Whitney Awards and was a nominee for the prestigious International DUBLIN Literary Award.

The Orphan Keeper won Book of the Year, Gold accolades in Multicultural Fiction from Foreword Reviews. Other books include The Other Side of the Bridge, Christmas by Accident, and his latest book, In Times of Rain and War will release in April 2021.

Camron lives with his wife, Alicyn, just south of Salt Lake City at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. He is the proud father of four children, all girls but three.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

ICYMI Challenge
Netgalley Backlist

The Rent Collector – by Camron Wright – independent book review – Fiction

THE RENT COLLECTOR is one of those books that turned out to be completely different from what I expected. And absolutely wonderful! And, as you find out at the end, it’s based on a true story. Awarded five stars on Goodreads .

Adjacent to a huge public dump, in one of the poorest areas of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Sang Ly, her husband Kim Lim, and baby Nisay scrape by each day by scrounging around the mounds of garbage, hunting for items they can sell to buy food. That is, if the patrolling gangs don’t steal their money first. The family home is cobbled together from metal scrap and tarp (look at the image on the book cover), offering only meager protection from the elements. Nisay is constantly ill and, despite continual effort, his parents can’t seem to find a cure that lasts.

One of the most hated figures in their lives is the Rent Collector, an older woman who relentlessly hounds her customers, instantly threatening eviction anytime they are late with even one payment. Then, one day, Sang Ly notices the Rent Collector tearing up after glimpsing the cover of a discarded book. This leads Sang Ly to conclude that the Rent Collector knows how to read. Desperate to do whatever she can to improve the prospects for her young son’s future, Sang Ly asks the Rent Collector to please teach her how to read.

Thus begins a relationship between these two women, from vastly different backgrounds, who slowly begin to uncover each other’s life story and develop a friendship. The Rent Collector’s mysterious story dates back to the brutal Khmer Rouge regime while Sang Ly’s is rooted in a small country town. There is also the touching love story between Sang Ly and her husband and a glimpse at how, poor as they are, the two of them are able to make a big difference in the lives of those around them. It’s also a glimpse into the world of illiteracy and the difference one person’s skill can make in the lives of everyone around her.

Don’t miss THE RENT COLLECTOR , a lovely, deeply human novel!

More about the author, Camron Wright .

You may be interested in my reviews of other books by Camron Wright:

THE ORPHAN KEEPER

IN TIMES OF RAIN AND WAR

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Review: The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

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Book Review: The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright

August 23, 2013

Reviewed by Tutor Monica Hawse, AACLC Tutor

I just finished reading an outstanding book which I’m sure other Literacy Council members would also enjoy. The book is a compelling story about how learning to read makes such a dramatic difference in a person’s life. Here’s my review; if you could pass it on to others, that would be great!

The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It is about Ki Lim and Sang Ly and their sick baby who live at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living by scavenging recyclables from the trash. It has all of the elements of a good read: well-developed characters that you soon grow attached to, a fascinating storyline, an education about a totally different and difficult way of life–and it also focuses on love, mystery, and the power of hope.

Cameron Wright is a wonderful storyteller; I loved his writing style. Although the book is a novel it is partly derived from Cameron’s son’s documentary of life in Stung Meanchey. A wonderful surprise awaits you at the end of the book, where there are photos of Ki Lim, Sang Ly, and baby Nisay, along with scenes of life at the dump. Somehow these photos made the novel even more meaningful.

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Book club talking points:.

1. In the opening pages of The Rent Collector, Sang Ly's grandfather promises that it will be a very lucky day. What role do you think luck plays in our lives? How does the idea of luck reconcile with the novel's epigraph, the quote from Buddha on the opening page?

2. After reading Sarann (the Cambodian Cinderella), Sopeap and Sang Ly discuss how story plots repeat, reinforcing the same lessons. Sopeap calls resurfacing plots "perplexing" and then asks, "Is our DNA to blame for this inherent desire to hope? Is it simply another survival mechanism? Is that why we love Sarann or Cinderella? Or is there more to it?" How would you answer? What are possible explanations for the phenomenon?

3. Sang Ly says that living at the dump is a life where "the hope of tomorrow is traded to satisfy the hunger of today." How might this statement also apply to those with modern homes, late-model cars, plentiful food, and general material abundance?

4. Sang Ly mentions that Lucky Fat has an "uncanny knack of finding money lost amongst the garbage." Do you suppose someone may have been helping him by placing money for him to find? If so, who?

5. Speaking of her clock, Sang Ly says, "Sometimes broken things deserve to be repaired." What might she be referring to more than the clock?

6. The shelters at Stung Meanchey are built to protect the resting pickers from the sun. What other purposes do they serve? What "shelters" do we build in our own lives? How would you react if the "shelters" in your life were constantly being torn down?

7. At first, Ki is reluctant to welcome change, specifically to see Sang Ly learn to read. He says, "I know that we don't have a lot here, but at least we know where we stand." What do you think he means? When have you found it hard to accept change?

8. Sopeap tells Sang Ly: "To understand literature, you read it with your head, but you interpret it with your heart. The two are forced to work together...and, quite frankly, they often don't get along." Do you agree? Can you think of examples?9. Koah Kchol, or scraping, is an ancient remedy Sang Ly says has been practiced in her family for generations. Do you have your own family remedies that have been passed down? What are they, and do they work?

10. Sang Ly and Sopeap discuss dreams. Have you ever had a dream that changed your attitude, decisions, or outlook? Was it a subconscious occurrence or something more?

11. In a moment of reflection, Sang Ly admits that she doesn't mean to be a skeptic, to lack hope, or to harbor fear. However, she notes that experience has been her diligent teacher. She asks, "Grandfather, where is the balance between humbly accepting our life's trials and pleading toward heaven for help, begging for a better tomorrow?" How would you answer her question?

12. Sang Ly speaks often to her deceased grandfather, but not to her father, until after her meeting with the Healer. Why did her attitude change? How might the same principle apply to relationships in our own lives?

13. Sopeap always wears thick brown socks, no matter the weather. As Sopeap lies dying, Sang Ly notices that the socks have slipped, exposing scars on Sopeap's ankles. How would you presume Sopeap got these scars? How might Sopeap's scars (or rather their source) have influenced her appreciation for the story of the rising Phoenix? In what ways does Sopeap rise from her own ashes, literally and figuratively ?

14. The story ends with Sang Ly retelling the myth of Vadavamukha and the coming of Sopeap to Stung Meanchey. By the time you reached the final version in the book's closing pages, had you remembered the original version in the book's opening pages? How had the myth changed? How had Sopeap changed? How had Sang Ly changed? 15. When the story closes, Sang Ly and her family are still living at Stung Meanchey. Are you satisfied with the ending, that they remain at the dump? Why or why not?

1. Lucky Fat is generally cheerful. In fact, most of the people who actually work and live at Stung Meanchey are happy, despite the fact they are only "earning enough money to buy food on the very day they eat it." If you had to move to the dump today, could you be happy in your circumstance? Explain why or why not.

2. Sopeap warns Sang Ly: "Life at the dump has limitations, but it serves a plate of predictability. Stung Meanchey offers boundaries. There are dangers, but they are understood, accepted, and managed. When we step out of that world, we enter an area of unknown." What boundaries do we accept or create for ourselves? In reply, Sang Ly says, "I'm just talking about literature." Sopeap responds, "And so am I." What do you suppose Sopeap is trying to imply? What might literature represent?

3. When returning from the province, Sang Ly declares, "Home. I let the word ring in my head. Stung Meanchey...a dirty, smelly, despicable place where our only possessions can be carried in two hands. 'Yes,' I confirm, 'we are home.'" Contrast this with her declaration that for Sopeap, "the dump was never her home...no matter how hard she tried to make it so." Why the difference? Where is home for you and why?

4. Sopeap's last name is Sin. Do you think this was intentional by the author? If so, what are the implications and what parallels might be drawn?

5. Sitting beside Sopeap on the garden roof, Sang Ly says, "As the clouds close in, an evening rain begins to fall. The drops are large, like elephant tears, and as they smack the floor, they break into tiny beads that dance and play across the tiles." How is the rain symbolic? What other symbolism did you notice?

The resounding message throughout this book is one of hope and at the same time disbelief, that people could live in such horrible conditions. I loved that the main character, living in a dump with untold challenges, wants to learn to read. There are many lessons to be learned and the book is full of inspiration; sure to generate lots of healthy conversation. When you come to the final chapter and close this book, you will appreciate many things you took for granted.

The Rent Collector is the story of a young mother, Sang Ly, struggling to survive by picking through garbage in Cambodia's largest municipal dump. Under threat of eviction by an embittered old drunk who is charged with collecting rents from the poor of Stung Meanchey, Sang Ly embarks on a desperate journey to save her ailing son from a life of ignorance and poverty. It's a tale of discovery and redemption in which she learns that literature, like hope, is found in the most unexpected places.

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Book Review- The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

12 Sep, 2012 by Heather in Shadow Mountain 2 comments

The Rent Collector By Camron Wright Hardcover, 304 pages Published September 2012 by Shadow Mountain ISBN: 1609071220 Book Source: Publisher 5 Stars

Book Summary from Goodreads: Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working. Just when things seem worst, Sang Ly learns a secret about the bad-tempered rent collector who comes demanding money–a secret that sets in motion a tide that will change the life of everyone it sweeps past. The Rent Collector is a story of hope, of one woman’s journey to save her son and another woman’s chance at redemption. Cathy’s review: Sang Ly lives with her husband Ki Lim and their son Nisay in the most unimaginable place for them to live, Stung Meanchey, a huge dump located in Cambodia. They are lucky to have a nice house to live in. Their house has 3 walls and they use a canvas tarp for the 4th. In order to get money, Sang Ly and Ki Lim must pick through the trash in the dump looking for recyclables to sell. This is a hard life, made harder by the fact that Nisay is a very sick little boy. He has almost constant diarrhea, that Sang Ly must scrub off of him and off of their home every day. To her, it’s not inconvenient, it’s just life. They have no running water, no electricity. And to add to the injustice of this, they must pay rent every month, to a woman that those living in the dump call a “Cow”, known in the beginning of the story as simply, The Rent Collector. This woman is perpetually drunk and she’s not known for being nice, in fact, she threatens at the very beginning of this book to kick out Sang Ly and her family for not paying all of their rent at the same time, even though their money had gone to buy more medicine for Nisay. When The Rent Collector, Sopeap Sin comes back for the money, Sang Ly knows they are going to be kicked out, they can’t pay now, because Ki Lim had been attacked by a gang and had to go to the doctor to be fixed up, but the oddest thing happens. Sopeap sees a book in Sang Ly’s house and asks to take it, Sang Ly can tell that she can read it by the way her eyes move and Sang Ly knows that if she can get Sopeap Sin to teach her, she can make a better life for Nisay. Thus begins a very unlikely friendship between two very different women, that will change both of their lives. This book really touched me. I had no idea that people actually lived in deplorable places like a dump before reading this. This book is a novel, but it’s based on the life of the true Sang Ly. I love Sang Ly and the others that inhabit the dump. I love how they are thrilled to have a place to live, even though it’s filled with garbage and infested with disease. I love how they keep trying to do all they need to do, for me I think it would get so overwhelming to try to get enough garbage to pay the rent every month. I love Sang Ly’s attitude, she really has nothing, but she’s so willing to help others. I want to be more like her, to be grateful for what I do have and not concerned with what I don’t. I was really touched by something that Sang Ly’s Auntie said, so I’ll share it with you. Sang Ly has returned to the place where she grew up where her aunt and uncle live. She loves the change of scenery from the dump and says she would love to stay in the city where she grew up because the dump is ugly. Her Auntie replies, “…Remember, the province, though beautiful, has it’s own pockets of ugliness. While the dump is ugly, it also has pockets of beauty. I think finding beauty in either place simply depends on where you decide to stand.” That’s what I hope I can take from this book, if I can’t find beauty where I’m standing, maybe I simply need to change my vantage point until I can.

Content: A few mild swear words, violence in the dump

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The Rent Collector

82 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Chapters 19-21

Chapters 22-23

Chapters 24-25

Chapters 26-28

Chapters 29-30

Character Analysis

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Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Summary and Study Guide

Camron Wright’s The Rent Collector , originally published in 1990, tells the story of Sang Ly , a 29-year-old Cambodian woman who lives at the edge of Cambodia’s infamous dump, Stung Meanchey , with her husband, Ki Lim , and her 16-month-old son, Nisay . The fiction novel addresses such themes as the power of story , the influence of the past , the importance of education , and the balance of good and evil .

Sang and Ki work as pickers in the dump and make their living looking for discarded items that they can sell or re-use. They use their meager profits to purchase food and other necessities as well as to pay the rent for their modest home, a hovel made of tin and cardboard. Every month the Rent Collector, a woman allegedly named Sopeap Sin, whom the residents also call “the Cow,” comes to collect the rent. If her tenants are short, Sopeap will summarily evict them. Sang and Ki usually earn enough to get by, but Sang dreams of having a more stable and fulfilling life. She wants a better life for her son, who suffers from an illness that neither Western medicine nor folk remedies seems to help. Life in a landfill, which is constantly smoldering and smoky, contributes to Nisay’s illness. Even when it rains, the toxic runoff from the dump is dangerous. Workers are often injured or killed while scavenging. Gangs also target the workers and roam the dump with impunity, as the police will not enter the dump to help.

Sang decides her family’s best chance is for her to learn to read, which requires the help of the formidable rent collector, Sopeap. Sang’s literary evolution parallels both Sang and Sopeap’s character development, and the two women form a friendship based on respect and a mutual appreciation of literature. Sopeap’s secret terminal cancer diagnosis becomes known and devastates Sang. When Sopeap quietly leaves the dump, Sang embarks on a journey to find her that results in the discovery of Sopeap’s true origin story: Sopeap’s name is Soriyan, and the real Sopeap Sin died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge to protect Soriyan.

Determined to find Sopeap, Sang locates the real Sopeap Sin’s family. Although she reveals that Soriyan has been sending them money under the guise of Sopeap Sin, the family members embrace Soriyan’s gesture and express their gratitude. Sang finally reaches Sopeap, and before the old woman dies, Sang imparts the kind words of the real Sopeap Sin’s family, thus redeeming Soriyan’s prior cowardice. When Sang returns to Stung Meanchey, she embraces the dump as her true home. She resolves to share her education with the other community residents and teach the children, like Nisay, how to read and write.

Wright’s novel is based on the true story of the Stung Meanchey scavengers, as depicted in River of Victory , a documentary Wright’s son, Trevor Wright, directed in 2010. A portion of the novel’s proceeds go to the former residents of Stung Meanchey and have already helped the real-life Sang Ly and her family.

More than just one woman’s story, however, Wright’s text also interrogates the consequences of the Cambodian genocide, which occurred after the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK)—known as the Khmer Rouge—took control of Cambodia in 1975 and lasted until the regime’s end in early 1979. Under the brutal leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge attempted to create an agricultural utopia and terminated anyone deemed a threat. Prominent targets included Cambodian ethnic and religious groups, such as the Vietnamese, the Chinese, and Cham Muslims. The Khmer Rouge executed 2 million people during the genocide and killed hundreds of thousands more through forced labor, physical abuse, starvation, torture, and medical experimentation.

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The Rent Collector

Camron wright. shadow mountain (baker & taylor, dist.), $22.99 (304p) isbn 978-1-60907-122-6.

Reviewed on: 09/17/2012

Genre: Fiction

Paperback - 288 pages - 978-1-60907-705-1

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The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA

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The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA Hardcover – July 16, 2024

Print length 320 pages
Language English
Publisher Astra House
Publication date July 16, 2024
Dimensions 6.31 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10 1662601735
ISBN-13 978-1662601736
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Astra House (July 16, 2024)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1662601735
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1662601736
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.31 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
#115 in Organized Crime True Accounts
#232 in Criminology (Books)
#431 in Murder & Mayhem True Accounts

About the author

Jesse Katz is a former Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Magazine writer whose honors include the James Beard Foundation’s M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award, PEN Center USA’s Literary Journalism Award, a National Magazine Award nomination, and two shared Pulitzer Prizes. As a volunteer with InsideOUT Writers, he has mentored incarcerated teenagers at Central Juvenile Hall and the former California Youth Authority.

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His Poems Are a Joy to Hear, Even When Their Meanings Aren’t Clear

In his latest collection, Paul Muldoon continues his longtime trick of marshaling obscure references into fluent, fun and rollicking lyrics.

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This illustration shows what appears to be a bumpy dirt pile against a sky-blue background, overlaid by a line of Paul Muldoon’s poetry that reads “Atop the triangular mound.”

By Jeff Gordinier

Jeff Gordinier, the author of “X Saves the World” and “Hungry,” lives in Los Angeles.

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JOY IN SERVICE ON RUE TAGORE, by Paul Muldoon

A few weeks after my editor assigned me this review, I came close to sending him a panicked email. “I can’t pretend to have any idea what Paul Muldoon is talking about,” I wanted to say. “The book is clogged with so many arcane references that my brain lapses into fog when I open to a random page.”

Muldoon’s work has been part of the global cultural conversation for half a century now, and part of its lasting appeal — for those who soldier on through any initial confusion — can be compared to the pleasure of puzzles. (Or artichokes, in the sense that you have to peel away the tough outer petals in order to arrive at the tender heart.) Many of his signature poems from past decades, such as “ Meeting the British ” and “ The Sightseers ” and “Lag” and “ Errata ,” have served as a showcase for entry-level gaming: Use a little brainpower (and maybe a search engine) and you can suss out the allusions, at which point the full force of a poem might just punch you in the gut. In his best work, time dissolves. The sediment separating sections of human history melts away. The centuries commingle and — to borrow a phrase from the movie “Almost Famous” — it’s all happening.

But over time Muldoon’s riddles have become more riddled, and his laboratory of wordplay more labyrinthine. If there’s a common assumption that poetry is something you read with your smartphone off so that you can get lost in it, Muldoon’s latest verse represents the opposite: Without a phone at hand, you’ll just get lost. Unless you happen to be a person who can identify Milo of Croton, the Sopwith Camel, Foghorn Leghorn, Diego de Vargas, Château Latour, Chang and Eng, Stephen Trask, Daisy Mayhem, Lord Snowdon, Theophrastus, Marc Bolan, Tony Visconti, Burl Ives, Parker Knoll, Laxton’s Superbs, Samuel Pepys and Belfast Lough without surrendering to the guidance of Google. (And if you can, congratulations — you’re the winner of the first annual Christopher Hitchens Memorial Prize for Knowing Everything.)

Those names, and many more, overflow from the pages of Muldoon’s latest collection, “Joy in Service on Rue Tagore.” (I’ll save you from grabbing your phone: Rabindranath Tagore , born in 1861, was a poet, a Nobel Prize winner and a colossal figure in the literary history of India.) Having been young in the 1970s, I had no problem with Foghorn Leghorn (the Looney Tunes cartoon rooster) and Marc Bolan (the glam-rock god who fronted T. Rex) and David Bowie’s record producer Tony Visconti. I figured out that a Laxton’s Superb is a type of apple because it appeared in a poem called “Ducking for Apples.” But in that same poem I stopped in my tracks at this line: “What gazed back at Nietzsche was in fact Abyssinia/now he’d gazed so long into the abyss.” Gazing into the abyss? I know the feeling.

This leads to a question: Do you need to “understand” every beat of Paul Muldoon’s poetry in order to enjoy it? As with the work of John Ashbery, a lack of comprehension doesn’t necessarily impede delight. Using my very scientific “open to a random page” method of reading “Joy in Service on Rue Tagore,” I found myself marveling (as I often have) at Muldoon’s virtuosic gift for rhyme and his uncanny sense of rhythm. He’s got flow. Consider this passage from a poem called “Artichokes and Truffles”:

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The Best-Selling “The Rent Collector” Now for Young Readers #Review
Book Review: The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
The Rent Collector
Book Review: The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
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COMMENTS

Book Review: 'The Rent Collectors,' by Jesse Katz
Jesse Katz's true-crime narrative, "The Rent Collectors," delivers a nuanced portrait of a community racked by poverty and violence and deprived of opportunities to get ahead. Share full ...
The Rent Collector
Fun Fact: The story is fiction, but Stung Meanchey, Sang Ly and her family, and many of the other characters in the story are real. The Rent Collector was based on a documentary called River of Victory. The author wove a fictional story about the actual people, imagining what might happen if a family under those circumstances were given the ...
THE RENT COLLECTOR
THE RENT COLLECTOR. by Camron Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 2022. A story of survival that is most effective when it comes to showing the power of reading. Inspired by a true story, this young readers' edition of a 2012 title for adults focuses on a family living in a large garbage dump on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Sang Ly ...
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
The Rent Collector is one of those novels you pick up at just the right time, and it cleanses your soul to the core of who you are. As my first read for 2024, it did just that, as I read about a family who lives in the dump in Cambodia and a mother's desperate attempt to learn to read to hopefully open up more doors for herself and her young ...
Book Review: The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
The Rent Collector. by Camron Wright. Published: September 24, 2012. Genres: Adult Fiction. Format: Hardcover (304 pages) Source: Library. Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash.
The Rent Collector
THE RENT COLLECTOR is one of those books that turned out to be completely different from what I expected. And absolutely wonderful! And, as you find out at the end, it's based on a true story. Awarded five stars on Goodreads. Adjacent to a huge public dump, in one of the poorest areas of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Sang Ly, her husband Kim Lim ...
The Rent Collector
The Rent Collector is a story of hope, of one woman's journey to save her son and another woman's chance at redemption. It demonstrates that even in a dump in Cambodia—perhaps especially in a dump in Cambodia—everyone deserves a second chance. Though the book is a work of fiction, it was inspired by real people who lived at the Stung ...
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright, Paperback
"Through Sang Ly and the rent collector, readers will discover a wealth of insights: the lingering ravages of war, the common bonds of humanity, and the uplifting power of literature."—School Library Journal "An amazing piece of literature, a must read for every book club!" — Sean Covey, New York Times bestselling author. From the Publisher
Review: The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Review: I was afraid this book was going to be too much like the non-fiction Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, which I read recently. That followed a family who lived in a trash dump in Bombay, India and had a rent collector character as well. I needn't have worried. This book is based on a documentary made by the author's son so the characters are real, the places are real, and ...
Book Review: The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright
The book is a compelling story about how learning to read makes such a dramatic difference in a person's life. Here's my review; if you could pass it on to others, that would be great! The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It is about Ki Lim and Sang Ly and their sick baby who live at ...
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright- Discussion Questions & Book Review
PBR Book Review: Although The Rent Collector is fiction, the inspiration for this book is the documentary film "River of Victory". The story is set in Cambodia just after the decline of the Khmer Rouge regime. The two main characters, Sang Ly and her husband live in Stung Meanchey, a garbage dump, and to survive they pick through truckloads of ...
Inside The New York Times Book Review: The 10 Best Books of 2016
This week, The New York Times Book Review unveils its 10 Best Books of 2016. One of those books is "War and Turpentine," by Stefan Hertmans. The editors of the Book Review write: Inspired by ...
Book Review- The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
The Rent Collector. By Camron Wright. Hardcover, 304 pages. Published September 2012. by Shadow Mountain. ISBN: 1609071220. Book Source: Publisher. 5 Stars. Book Summary from Goodreads: Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia.
The Rent Collector Summary and Study Guide
Overview. Camron Wright's The Rent Collector, originally published in 1990, tells the story of Sang Ly, a 29-year-old Cambodian woman who lives at the edge of Cambodia's infamous dump, Stung Meanchey, with her husband, Ki Lim, and her 16-month-old son, Nisay. The fiction novel addresses such themes as the power of story, the influence of ...
The Rent Collector: Camron Wright: 9781609077051: Amazon.com: Books
The Rent Collector. Paperback - October 1, 2013. by Camron Wright (Author) 4.5 12,936 ratings. See all formats and editions. Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash.
The Rent Collector by Camron Steve Wright
The Rent Collector. Camron Wright. Shadow Mountain (Baker & Taylor, dist.), $22.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-60907-122-6. The written word offers hope for a brighter future in Wright's fact-based new ...
The Rent Collector Summary of Key Ideas and Review
The "The Rent Collector" book summary will give you access to a synopsis of key ideas, a short story, and an audio summary. ... The Rent Collector Review. The Rent Collector (2012) by Camron Wright is a captivating story about a family living in a trash dump in Cambodia and their transformative journey towards hope and redemption. Here's ...
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
1. In the opening pages of The Rent Collector, Sang Ly's grandfather promises that it will be a very lucky day. What role do you think luck plays in our lives? How does the idea of luck reconcile with the novel's epigraph, the quote from Buddha on the opening page? 2. After reading Sarann (the Cambodian Cinderella), Sopeap and Sang Ly discuss ...
The Rent Collector, a novel by Camron Wright
"An amazing piece of literature, a must-read for every book club!" —Sean... The Rent Collector, a novel by Camron Wright. 435 likes · 1 talking about this. "An amazing piece of literature, a must-read for every book club!" —Sean Covey, New York Time
The Rent Collector: Adapted for Young Readers from the Best-Selling
Editorial Reviews "Working as "pickers," Sang Ly and her husband, Ki Lim, earn their living by sifting through the trash at Stung Meanchey, Cambodia's large city dump…An unlikely friendship blossoms between the two women, and Sang Ly learns that the Rent Collector's gruff exterior hides unspeakable personal tragedies and a life shattered by the Khmer Rouge.
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Rent Collector
A fictional tale of a woman living in Cambodia's largest wastedump learning to read & see the world differently. Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2016. I really enjoyed the quotes from literature incorporated into the story. I enjoyed the historical piece, learning about the Khmer Rouge revolution and the genocide that occurred.
The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant
— Ben Ehrenreich, The New York Times Book Review "Katz has constructed a riveting and masterful urban narrative." ... — Steven Dudley, author of MS-13: The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang "The Rent Collectors is a must-read book for our times. An insightful and deeply researched journey through the underbelly of LA, Jesse Katz has ...
Robert Caro Reflects on 'The Power Broker' and Its Legacy at 50
Caro's book on Robert Moses, a city planner who reshaped New York, is also a reflection on "the dangers of unchecked power," and remains more resonant and relevant than ever.
Poetry Review: 'Joy in Service on Rue Tagore,' by Paul Muldoon
In his latest collection, Paul Muldoon continues his longtime trick of marshaling obscure references into fluent, fun and rollicking lyrics. By Jeff Gordinier Jeff Gordinier, the author of "X ...

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The Rent Collector

Summary and Study Guide

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The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA Hardcover – July 16, 2024

From the Publisher

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About the author

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Top reviews from the United States

His Poems Are a Joy to Hear, Even When Their Meanings Aren’t Clear

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VIDEO

COMMENTS