Author: Tommy Chong

ISBN 13:978-1-4169-1554-6

We read memoirs to get an intimate and insightful look into the lives of people we find fascinating. We read them to get a glimpse into other people’s minds. Tommy Chong (of the legendary comedy pair Cheech and Chong) allows us inside his head with his first book attempt, The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint. In it, Chong relives his highly publicized arrest and subsequent imprisonment on federal drug paraphernalia charges. Unfortunately though, the glimpse he provides into his mind reveals very little there. Although it is candid and seemingly genuine it is also superficial and sloppy, managing to be, at best, marginally entertaining in spots. 

              Chong begins his story with a series of disjoined events from his early years growing up in Canada during the nineteen forties and fifties. Among other things he highlights some of the adversity he faced as the child of interracial parents (Chinese father and Irish-Scottish mother). Any potential poignancy this theme might have however, was lost in Chong’s writing style which is harsh, choppy and held together loosely by a sketchy adherence to a chronological arrangement.

From Chong’s childhood, the book jumps to the early morning hours of February 24, 2003 when federal law enforcement officials executed a search warrant on his Pacific Palisades, California home. This event would mark the beginning of an ordeal Chong relates in its entirety. From this raid to the moment of his arrival at Taft Community Correctional Facility, Chong provides a detailed account of his thoughts and actions. Some of these moments are surprisingly moving, for example his recounting of the barrage of phone calls he received from relatives and friends when they heard of his arrest. The majority of instances however, are tedious and self-indulgent recollections that somehow end up manifesting themselves as preachy, pseudo-philosophical observations and spiritual beliefs.

In fact when Chong begins to tell about the time he spent in prison, the book nearly transforms itself into a crude religious manifesto. The irony, of course, is the book takes its name from the I Ching or The book of Changes, the 3000 year old Chinese text that stands at the heart of Confucianism. Not surprisingly The I Chong falls well short of the I Ching’s philosophical implications.

In addition, to the ineffective quasi-spiritualism, Chong gives the reader a fierce onslaught of conspiracy theorist, anti-Bush Administration tangents which attribute the whole ordeal to a federal government vendetta. In Chong’s estimation, his arrest is payback for all the pro-marijuana movies he made in the past. There is actually some decent rhetoric in these digressions but, they are vague and unsubstantiated, making them seem more like the ravings of a drunken schizophrenic than the legitimate indictment of the American government they’re meant to be.

One thing Chong does do well in this book, though, is to make a case for the injustice of his conviction and nine month sentence. Chong’s version of events are fairly compelling leaving the reader to feel that his only true crime was writing this book.

Chong’s memoir is sprinkled with moments of humor as you would image but, sadly this is largely overshadowed by the erratic and amateurish fashion it was written in. The book is neither insightful nor entertaining. If you like Tommy Chong’s comedy, you’re better off spending the $23.95 on a bag of grass and an old Cheech and Chong movie rental.

I’m inclined to reduce The I Chong down to the incoherent ramblings of a man who throughout his lifetime simply smoked too much marijuana. But, to be fair Mr. Chong may wish to do the same with this review.

The above review was contributed by:  Anthony Squiers:  writer and professor of English and Creative Writing at Southwestern Michigan College. His writing has been featured in a number of print and online publications including Southwest Michigan Magazine and Recoil Magazine.