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.
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"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"
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"Explores the complexities of life and the dichotomies of emotion and experience that can occur within a single person."— Ms. Magazine
Loaded with personality and originality. . . . lyric energy bursts from almost every sentence."— Kirkus Reviews
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
Searing, stunning, and singular."— Kyle Lucia Wu, author of Win Me Something
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