The Rent Collector

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Heartfelt and inspirational story about a family that lives at the dump in Cambodia, and the power of being literate...not only to read and share stories, thoughts, feelings, but just to make life that much easier...you can read bus signs for yourself instead of asking strangers and hoping for the best.  But the book also is quick to point out that while the Weatern ideal of education is beneficial, the Cambodians have their own wisdom that may be better than Western science.
The author used real people and events in his story and then added fictionalized events.  In book club, one reader pointed out how much she hated that approach...tell a real story or a fictional one, not half and half.  I  realized that that is what didn't work for me in this book as well.  Storylines were dropped, characters made decisions that didn't make sense...and I think these were a product of trying to make his fictional characters follow the same path as the "real"ones.  But by giving them fictional events, he has changed their reality and they simply can't end up in the same place.  By trying to make them do so felt contrived, and some of the magic of the story is lost.


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