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Sign up todayMeet Me Tonight in Atlantic City
Narrator
Jane Wong
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Length
9 hours 46 minutes
Language
English
An Audible Best Memoir Audiobook of 2023
An incandescent, exquisitely written memoir about family, food, girlhood, resistance, and growing up in a Chinese American restaurant on the Jersey shore.
In the late 1980s on the Jersey shore, Jane Wong watches her mother shake ants from an MSG bin behind the family’s Chinese restaurant. She is a hungry daughter frying crab rangoon for lunch, a child sneaking naps on bags of rice, a playful sister scheming to trap her brother in the freezer before he traps her first. She is part of a family staking their claim to the American dream, even as this dream crumbles. Beneath Atlantic City’s promise lies her father’s gambling addiction, an addiction that causes him to disappear for days and ultimately leads to the loss of the restaurant.
In her debut memoir, Wong tells a new story about Atlantic City, one that resists a single identity, a single story, as she writes about making do with what you have―and what you don’t. What does it mean, she asks, to be both tender and angry? What is strength without vulnerability―and humor? Filled with beauty found in unexpected places, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City is a resounding love song of the Asian American working class, a portrait of how we become who we are, and a story of lyric wisdom to hold and to share.
The author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and Overpour, Jane Wong is a Kundiman fellow and the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, and others. Her writing can be found in places such as The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, The Best American Poetry 2015, POETRY, McSweeney’s, Ecotone, The Common, and more. An associate professor of creative writing at Western Washington University, she grew up on the New Jersey shore and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
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Reviews
“Jane Wong's soft voice contrasts with the brutal life she faced with her abusive father, an alcoholic gambling addict who put her family in financial jeopardy.… Wong's originality and the beauty of her descriptions remain constants in this memoir as emotions and time periods shift briskly. Humor lightens Wong's anger and angst. Her experiences with racism are powerfully conveyed.” —AudioFile Magazine
“Wong grew up in New Jersey in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the child of Chinese immigrants chasing the American dream.… Wong narrates the recording herself, imparting the nuance and gravitas that can only come from someone intimately familiar with their own words. Her story is beautiful and heartbreaking, interwoven with the theme of love for her mother. The poetic, episodic format may be a challenge for listeners used to a narrative-style memoir, but this is a treat for readers seeking a collage of memories and stories. A uniquely told story full of vibrant characters and heart-wrenching emotion, this is a surefire recommendation.” —Library Journal
"Delightful. . . . With a poet’s ear for language and a satirist’s eye for human foibles, Wong masterfully marries her personal story with larger questions about Chinese American identity. This is a winner." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
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