Customer Reviews

The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The audience for this book is any "thinking" adult. I'm sure the Feds that busted him, as well as the people he portrayed in the movies will enjoy this book. You don't have to be of one camp or another...

This was a very enjoyable biography. Tommy shared is youth in Canada with candor. He doesn't place blame or make excuses, but points out the way it was. His marriage is a wonderful love story that was heart warming. There are many LOL pages and some that tugged at your spirit. His love of tango dancing was a great vignette that carried through the whole story. He brings some very real issues to the table and discusses them. He thinks clearly about the war on dope, and he brings up some other topics that should also be discussed. The content gracefully touched on politics, religion, family, racism and a wide variety of subjects we should all be talking about.

His incarceration is truly an embarrassment for our country, but his blame on the Republican Party shows how recently he got in this bind. This is a two party system, and they're both guilty. This has been going on for a long time. Reason Magazine (and their libertarian website) did a lot of good reporting on Tommy Chong. They discuss the stripping of our rights that have been progressing through the recent decades, and accelerated since the Patriot Act.

After reading this, I would certainly love to see him do an investigative reporting type movie. Tommy could answer Michael Moore's question about why Americans shoot each other more than other well armed countries. The answer is hidden in this book.

I'll declare this upfront: I have never been a fan of the Cheech & Chong movies, nor have I followed either of their careers in detail. I enjoy memoirs, especially those by larger-than-life characters, and I picked up The I Chong hoping for some tales of vice and an indictment of the War on Drugs. I was swept away by this deceptively short and simple book of spiritual reflections, introspection, and cultural observations about the War on Drugs and life in federal prison. It's a shame that people might avoid this book out of a distaste for pot-smoking jokes--this memoir is serious, intelligent, and witty, and Chong has been on a year-plus fast from pot-smoking.

"The Joint" refers to Chong's incarceration for selling glass bongs. That's right. He was imprisoned for nine months for selling glass when the Bush Administration wanted to make an example out of a cultural pro-marijuana symbol. His straightforward, well-worded perspective on the Operation Pipe Dreams sting will make even the most straight-laced reader question the use of our government resources to pursue people like Tommy Chong.

This is a book to read and share with friends and family. You don't have to be a Cheech & Chong fan, nor a pro-marijuana crusader, to glean life lessons and wisdom from this short memoir.

Nice memoir by a very likeable character. He talks about the imbecilic raid on his house in the sting Operation called Operation Pipe Dream ("our doors were unlocked man -- they could have just walked right in") and his experience as a jailhouse celebrity (second only to Michael Milken for mail received).

The tale of his childhood in Vancouver is also very endearing, along with the inception of Cheech and Chong, which kind of fell out of an Improv Group.

It's a story of someone who's done a lot of drugs (though not as much as legend would have it) and is told with total appreciation of his life and no bitterness even towards the FBI agents who stung in. Indeed he's amused at how they solicited autographs from him while working undercover.

Only Tommy Chong could call a 9 month stint in prison a ride to enjoy.

I just read this while on vacation last month and what a great beach read this book was. What Tommy may lack in sophisticated prose he certainly makes up for in genuine charm. Throughout the book Tommy jumps back and forth between his early life (focusing somewhat specifically on his childhood) and the events leading up to and including his incarceration. Curiously, he does not talk about his comedy career that much, so those looking for insight into his relationship with Cheech and the movies they made together might be a bit disappointed. The book is short, and actually could have even been even shorter. Tommy tries hard to fill up the 224 pages with material as he tends to drift off topic with various tangents and the occasional spiritual rant. This is all fine though because, as usual, Tommy's heart is in the right place at all times and he comes off as being so likeable that I enjoyed reading whatever he had to say. Tommy seems to be a pretty simple guy with a somewhat utopian outlook on life, but this actually serves as a nice contrast to his grim situation. The most important thing is that the subject matter regarding his whole "Operation Pipe Dream" ordeal was always fascinating. I might also add that his prison experience, or more specifically, his approach to the experience was very interesting, and quite frankly refreshing. The positive attitude that Tommy maintained throughout his unjust situation could serve as an inspiration for many. Highly recommended.

Tommy had a lot of things to say about his bust and the government in general when he was putting this book together. He's still mad as hell. He wants to show and tell you his side of all the problems he had in 2003 with the stupid "bong bust". Yes, he did get taken for a long expensive ride on the Bush railroad, no question. He did his time and has come out of it clean and (for the moment) dried out. The book is full of a lot emotion and contradiction. The Chong brain is firing away in all directions with every page... Tommy is a very spiritual guy but not in the flaming christian sense. He believes, as he states in his book that life for you is so much easier if you put your enemies down and forgive them. Then you don't have enemies anymore. I believe that he believes that with all his heart and soul. Except for one area. If he could punish all the people involved for his bust, I think he would do it. He's still hot about it. I think he's having a tough time putting that part of his present day life aside.. This book, no doubt is part of that therapy. On to the lighter stuff; Tommy talks a good bit about his upbringing in Canada, giving a lot of space to his mother, father and brother. He is insightful about his career. His recommendation to any actor wanna-be's is to know when you are and when you aren't. Acting that is. AND I think thats the problem we ALL (Including the Feds) sort of have with Tommy. He is so good that we were never exactly certain where the stoned hippy-dude started and stopped. He's no dummy. He's done great for himself. He lives in an LA neigborhood with many of the Hollywood fluff-and-puff set. My problem with this book is that it wanders a lot. Lots of good stuff about prison life, his past, refelections... then BOOM, off on another rant about the government. Nine months in even a lightweight prison like he was in can do that to you I guess. His following of "I CHING" was interesting and has no doubt sparked a few search engines to life looking for information. Tommy talks about a lot of things in this book besides the main topic. He's a smart dude man...Very quotable. I'd like to see another book from Tommy when he calms down a bit more. If anything, there's still a lot of good thoughts in the head of that 66 year old hippie. It won't likely happen but it would be fun to see him and Cheech do another......anything together. Cheech gets lots of mentions in the book too by the way. Rock on Chong!

I read this book and i could understand every thing in this book tommy chong realy let you see through his eyes and even when you think tommy is going down. He just goes and says the most funny thing. this book i read all of (and that is saying something)it is one of the most up beat book ever and it alway has you wanting to read more and more i would recomend this book to anyone you should realy read this book !!!

It always amazes me how well the stoners, smugglers and dealers can write. Not exactly what I suspected when I got the book - primarily from a spirituality standpoint. I had no idea he had that much spiritual wisdom. But then that is not uncommon in comics whose material shows the hypocrisy in the illusion we live in. They just seem to "get it" and express it in a humorous way.

But when the U.S. government wants to make an example of you for doing just that, you pay the price. Well, that and making artisan quality bongs. Of course everything happens for a reason, and for Tommy, his prison time gave him an entirely different perspective on life, the world and our prison system.

The only downside to the book is that anyone who understands life the way Tommy does, not judging people, since, as he writes, all of our "mistakes" are merely learning experiences to help us get to the truth, should not express a venomous attitude toward all Republicans. I can understand his feelings, but they have lessons to learn too, and you cannot deny anyone their learning experience. It would have been better if he had left it as "politicians" instead. It comes through as too obsessive. To quote Tommy, "Resist no evil."

A thoughtful and open book on his life experiences beyond just the time he spent at Taft. Quick and fun read - I finished it on one airline flight.

From the moment the book arrived in the mail I could not put it down with the exceptions of sleeping and going to work and even at work I picked it up every free second I had. Its not his schtick on pot smoking jokes but instead the man and who exactly Tommy Chong was and is. His philosophies on life are insightful and inspiring. After finishing reading it in less than 48 hours I had to picked it up a week later to read it again. Its a page turner filled life, love, good times and bad and on several occasions I found myself laughing out loud (not something I tend to do when reading). Do yourself a favor and pick up 2 copies, one for yourself and one to loan out to your friends.

This book is really a self-help manual in the form of a memoir.

Mr. Chong's attitude about a horrid series of events is a model for everyone. He's a splendid storyteller, as we already knew, but there's an indescribable innocence and a glowing spirituality that appears in the book-- aspects that came through in his comedy less often than they do here.

Of course there's tons of humor, and justified, informed, surprisingly-forgiving rants against the so-called War on Drugs. (Each page makes the point clearer and clearer that this war is actually a war on the powerless.) But there's also a tranquility about his approach to the simplest aspects of daily life that is reminiscent of some sort of Zen master. The book ends with an optimism that will inspire any reader to attend to life as well as to take action to improve the world, whether it be through the legalization of marijuana, helping prisoners, or contributing to charity. I can't recommend this enough. It's honestly a 'feel good' book despite the topic.

I read this book around the house for a week. When I had nothing to do or just felt like reading in general, I sat down and read this book. The book was amazing to me for such a small writing. It reviewed just some of the most memorable parts of Tommy Chongs life to his most current jail time. I would recommend this book to anyone who just wants a quick good read for a good smile once finishing the book.