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.
This
book was absolutely amazing. It did take me a couple of chapters to get into it--I wasn't sure I
was up for reading about such heart wrenching conditions of life, but I am so glad I kept reading! The more I read, the more I fell in
love with the characters, and the more awe I felt over their perseverance and hope for a better life. Wright does an excellent job portraying the setting and describing events I never imagined could take place in a dump: from gang fights to compassion showed to a stranger. These people had so little, and yet still lived lives full of love and joy. I walked away from this book feeling more appreciative of the things that I have.
I have a passion for literature, and this book
is a wonderful story about the power of
literature-how the written word can change hearts.
Some quotes I loved about literature are:
“Literature has the power to change lives, minds, and hearts.”
“But literature is unique. 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.”
“Sang Ly, we are literature-our lives, our hopes, our desires, our
despairs, our passions, our strengths, our weaknesses. Stories express
our longing not only to make a difference today but to see what is
possible for tomorrow. Literature has been called a handbook for the
art of being human.”
"Whether we like it or not, hope
is written deeply in our hearts. We love the story because we are Sarann
or Tattercaots or Cinderella. We all struggle with the same problems
and doubts."
It is an engaging, heartfelt, and
incredible story, full of lessons about life and about the importance of
hope. There are many lessons to be learned, and I put the book down
still thinking about all of them. I would definitely recommend this book
to anyone who loves literature, or who just needs an incredible story of hope.
Rating: 4
Published: 9.2012Labels: Fiction, Review
