Stockton University's will debut its annual Stephen Dunn Reading Series on Wednesday with Jane Wong's debut memoir "Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City."
The book includes memories of growing up with a gambling addicted father who would take the family on trips to Atlantic City's casinos where the author would spend time jumping on hotel beds and fighting over the remote control with her brother.
"Our story is Atlantic City," she writes. "We are talking about the Taj Mahal, Caesars, Bally's. Casinos depicting worlds my father simply couldn't fathom. ...
"My parents didn't even know where Rome was on a map or that Rome existed," she continues. But Caesars was gleaming in its whiteness. Who could say no to the patina of wealth?"
The family would arrive on a "Chinese tourist bus where you have to fan yourself with your $10 gambling voucher and put your cigarette out in a Dixie cup. "Wong, who now lives in Seattle, will speak and read from her book at 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday in Campus Center Meeting Room 5. The appearance will also be streamed over Zoom. Admission is free, and the public is welcome to attend.
Her father's addiction would eventually lose the family their restaurant and, in the end, lose him his family.
The Los Angeles Times called the story "a love letter to Atlantic City and the Asian American working class."
Wong will give a talk and read from her book at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday in Campus Center Meeting Room 5. It also will be streamed over Zoom, by CLICKING HERE.
Admission is free, and the public is welcome to attend.
The Stephen Dunn Reading Series was named after the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and distinguished professor emeritus of Creative Writing at Stockton. The series is sponsored by Murphy Writing of Stockton University, the William T. Daly School of General Studies, the Literature program in the School of Arts & Humanities and Board of Trustee member Madeleine Deininger (Class of 1980).
