I almost burst into flames reading this book. And not in a good way. Never before has a book set me on fire so much so that I stopped people in the g I almost burst into flames reading this book. And not in a good way. Never before has a book set me on fire so much so that I stopped people in the grocery store to rant about it. And I'm talking a raging house fire that turns childhood photos to ash, not sweet cozy flames in a winter stone hearth sort of fire.
The GOOD: The story of Sang Ly and the people of Stung Meanchey is a breathtaking example of the power of the human spirit, a microcosm of the suffering/exaltation of life and an acute example of the abject poverty that exists in our world. The idea that The Rent Collector brings life in Stung Meanchey into the book clubs and reading lists of our comfortable Western world is a silver lining on a very dark storm cloud.
The BAD: This book is an excellent example of an author writing the story that he feels he needs to tell, and not honoring the characters or the story that actually exists. My first inclination that there was something horrifically wrong with the story was the voice of Sang Ly.
Sang Ly is a young mother living with her husband and chronically ill baby in the largest municipal dump in Cambodia, Stung Meanchey. We quickly learn that her life is hard, her child is dying and she has little hope for her future. When she figures out that the mean and nasty rent collector can read, she hatches a plan to get the woman to teach her how. Great setting for a novel, wonderful set up for character evolution and the pages are rife with conflict HOWEVER illiterate Sang Ly, telling the story in the present tense and in first person, has the vocabulary of a college educated American soccer mom! I found myself chuckling every time Sang Ly used words such as, "grandeur", "embraced", and "incessant". Not to mention the various American clichés and colloquialisms that tripped off of her tongue. In one instance the character takes the opportunity to explain to the reader what happens to young virgin Cambodian girls impoverished families sell to men, believing they are giving them a better life. Is this reality? Absolutely. Could the character Sang Ly know this? Yup. Would she then be able to tell the reader EXACTLY HOW MUCH IN AMERICAN MONEY THE GIRL IS WORTH? NO!** This woman has never left Cambodia. This woman cannot read. How does she have any clue as to how much American money is valued let alone how it translates to the value in Cambodia! Poor illiterate Sang Ly also gives us the genus and species of the plant 'bitter melon' (mormordica charantia), amazing don't you think? Her vocabulary is only one example of character transgression. In one passage, Sang Ly nearly has a nervous breakdown because she finds a leech on her ankle, which apparently has never happened before in her four years of living in a flaming, often explosive cesspool or during her entire childhood in the rice fields.
In addition to the vast violations in character voice, Camron Wright also takes the time to use the character of the rent collector (Sopeap Sin) to give the reader little lessons on what the author feels makes up literature. This part of the book left me feeling greasy. It was as if Wright was whispering in my ear, "See? Analogy and metaphors about the truth of life is what makes great literature. See how I've used the lives of Sang Ly and Sopeap Sin as metaphors about truth? See how MY book is great literature?" Gross.
In reading this book, I watched opportunities to tell a great story, to transport the readers, to illuminate actual truth leak out and run down the drain. Sang Ly returns with her family to the province she grew up in, a lush tropical jungle set with a different kind of poverty. These chapters, if filled with sensory description and nostalgia bursting off of the pages, had the power to illustrate to the reader our perceptions of life as children versus the reality of our lives as adults. What an incredible contrast through scene illustration this could have been! And yet, Wright chooses to use bland, overused words that conjure two dimensional storybook illustrations.
The UGLY (Author): On The Rent Collector website, Wright sites his son's documentary of actual people in Stung Meanchey (River Of Victory)as the inspiration and source of his story. In addition to writing events "exactly as I described them," he wove various events into a single incident in order to work with the storyline. Wright also references various books on the history of Cambodia and the reign of the Khmer Rouge.
When asked what is true and what is not true about The Rent Collector, Wright says, "My point is that it get’s a bit murky trying to dissect. Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about true vs. not-true. As Ernest Hemingway is reported to have said, “All good books have one thing in common, they are truer than if they had really happened.” I believe he has a point."
I want to fly to Utah and kick this dude in the shins.
This is the most blatant example of white privilege by an author I have ever come across. Rather than ACTUALLY GOING TO CAMBODIA AND MEETING THESE PEOPLE, he has chosen to steal their story, their voices and conjure his white middle American male version of what he thinks happens in their world so he can pull heartstrings and draw emotion from readers. And he doesn't even do a good job of it! Does he need to be female or Cambodian or even poor to write this story? Hell no. There are legions of amazing authors who write stories vastly different than their own. But he does need to do the work of standing in front of Sang Ly, breathing in the air of Stung Meanchey, looking her in the eyes and trying a mega ton harder to do her story justice, especially if he is going to write lived experiences. Instead he has stolen from them one of their most valuable possessions, their identity, so that he could sell more books.
In all of my research about Wright and the success of The Rent Collector, I have never come across anything that says proceeds from the sale of this book go to assist the people of Stung Meanchey.
The UGLY (the Book World): Are you kidding me Booklist, Publisher's Weekly, University of St. Francis, The Whitney Award, The Great Southwest Book Festival and others who've given praise to The Rent Collector? Are you absolutely kidding me? Did you read the book? Or did you read what the publisher told you to say and hit that magic 'Command' + 'C' and then paste it directly into your comment box? I am astonished and appalled that you have given your seal of approval to a project so rife with errors and blatant disregard for character development. As a reader, your opinion lacks credibility and you are on watch.
(**To the readers of this review: I apologize for the excessive use of all caps, as that isn't the most scholarly way to write. However I must point out that I was indeed yelling at the screen while I typed those words and therefore, it is the most accurate.)...more
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