Synopses & Reviews
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. Jane 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, Jane 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.
Review
"To borrow Jane Wong's own words, there are sparks coming off Wong's
blade of language. The spunky voice in this memoir shines through. I'm
so grateful to Wong for telling her unique story in only the way she
can, and in the process, expanding the possibilities of Asian American
stories. There's so much heart in these stories that explore race,
class, and family history, that we can't help but root for the
protagonist. This is a big-hearted coming-of-age book that
simultaneously asks hard questions." Victoria Chang, author of The Trees
Witness Everything
Review
"Jane Wong, with her poet's eye for precise and delightful detail, carves
out a quintessential story of family, gambling, loss, heartaches,
toothaches, and above all, love.
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City takes a father's addiction to
the prismatic casinos of Atlantic City and places it against a mother's
fierce, unsparing devotion and a daughter's struggle to make sense of
loss. I love the tenderness and ferocity of her prose, unsentimental and
wrenching, that refuses easy triumph in its immigrant story and isn't
afraid of uncovering both beauty and brutality.
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City is, at heart, a love story between Wong and her mother, Wong and herself." Sally Wen Mao, author of Oculus
Review
"My favorite aphorism about New Jersey is that only the strong survive
it. I see that place here in all its chaotic splendor and that strength
in the carving marks on each finely cut image. This is a perfect and
glimmering book that could only have been forged in Jane Wong's bloody
and beautiful heart." Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic
About the Author
Jane Wong is the author of the poetry collections
How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and
Overpour. An associate professor of creative writing at Western
Washington University, she grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in
Seattle, Washington.