Arlo, Alice, and Anglicans (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Freelance writer and former radio announcer Lee explores the history of Trinity Church in western Massachusetts, saying that "few churches... have had so many distinct and fascinating rebirths." Indeed, Trinity reflects many of America's transformations in microcosm: in the Gilded Age, it was a posh branch church of an Episcopalian parish. After it fell on hard times in the mid-20th century, it was deconsecrated and purchased by a "hippie" couple named Alice and Ray Brock in the early 1960s. They converted it into a home and a haven for countercultural youth. It was there, on Thanksgiving 1965, that musician Arlo Guthrie offered to take out the garbage from the meal and threw it down a local hill. His arrest for littering, and subsequent night in jail, resulted in the famous 18-minute song-cum-manifesto called "Alice's Restaurant" and a 1969 movie by the same name. Lee's account of all this is slightly starry-eyed; the book's latter half exudes unabashed admiration for Guthrie and the Brocks. Lee sometimes fails to draw larger connections with American religious history, glossing over, for example, the church's current reconsecrated status as Guthrie's "interfaith spiritual center" guided by his guru, a Jewish woman from Brooklyn who converted to Hinduism. "It's a 'bring your own God' church," says Guthrie, who feels no conflict in merging the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu parts of his life. The book mines a fascinating topic but misses the larger picture. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Far more than an exegesis of Alice's Restaurant.. author has a good ear for the story.. a fine read." -- Berkshire Eagle, August 31, 2000

"Lee skillfully weaves in the social, economic, religious and cultural history of the area and in-depth biographies of Alice and Arlo." -- Berkshire Eagle, Daniel Caplice Lynch, August 31, 2000

"Sometimes things happen in the Berkshires that seem like best-selling fiction... good reading all around." -- The Paper, Hillsdale, NY November 2000

"The best unsolicited book received of late." -- Book Sense Bestseller Lists, PW Daily, August 24, 2000

...a tale that has begged to be told...(Lee) has managed to set the record straight on a few key points. -- Judy Tarjanyi, Toledo

...such riveting detail that you almost feel that you have known the people involved all of your life. -- Bill Caccia, Oldies Music topic, About.com

A fine eye for ironic detail... Guthrie fans... shouldn't miss this book. -- Dirty Linen, February/March 2001

Lee's record of a community's worship center can remind us that gathering together has its own kind of power. -- Bethanne Kelly Patrick, Episcopal Life, March 2002

Seem(s) like best-selling fiction...extensive research...a dramatic ending... good reading all around. -- The Paper (Hillsdale, NY) November 2000

Trinity reflects many of America's transformations in microcosm... mines a fascinating topic. -- Publisher's Weekly, October 16, 2000

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Berkshire House Publishers; 1 edition (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581570104
• ISBN-13: 978-1581570106
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #830,120 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really first-rate in every way. SURPRISINGLY well done., October 14, 2000

By	Daniel P. Smith "Daniel P. B. Smith" (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't think I've ever seen a better piece of journalism.

I didn't expect too much from this book. I bought it for the usual tourist reasons (we were in Stockbridge to hear Arlo sing in the church). Published by Berkshire House, it graces the "local shelves" tables of every local bookstore and gift shop.This book didn't actually need to be GOOD. It just needed to have some scraps of fan information about Arlo and some old pictures of the Church and Officer Obie and so forth...

I cannot begin to describe how surprisingly satisfying this book is. It is really a first-rate job. It is so much more wide-ranging and thoughtful than might have been expected.

And Laura Lee covers the exact range of topics I was interested in, with just the right balance.

For example, about a quarter of the book is devoted to the "pre-Arlo" era. It's more than a lick-and-a-promise, interesting both in itself and as a jumping-off-point for musing on How Things Change. I never realized that the little fork-in-the-road Van Deusenville area of Housatonic was once a significant industrial town... At the same time, a quarter of the book is just about enough. I didn't want to wade through monograph on Great Barrington history, and after paying proper respect to the Bostwicks and the Van Deusens, we get to Ray and Alice Brock by page 65.

The thing that makes this book so splendid is Lee's sympathetic attention and reporting of _mild_ differences in opinion. I'm not sure I've ever seen a better piece of journalism. You see events refracted through different peoples' eyes--NOT a big-deal Rashomon conflict, just, well, different people saw things a little differently.

For example, Arlo's guru, Jaya Sati Bhagavati Ma, is seen through Arlo's eyes. She is also seen directly and with respect through Laura Lee's. However, Lee also reports the Berkshire Record's description of her as "a spiritual Ethel Merman wielding a Brooklyn persona" and Alice Brock's remark "Here is this dame, she's my age, she's from Brooklyn, she's Jewish, just like me, but she had this giant scam."

Thoroughly satisfying, absolutely first rate.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lee closes the loop on "The Church", September 6, 2000

By	J. Dock Myrick (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews

I finished Laura Lee's lovingly crafted book over the Labor Day weekend, having enjoyed it immensely. It becomes obvious that Laura Lee has a special love for the Trinity Church (now the Guthrie Center) because the history of The Church is exhaustively recorded in the first half of her book. I think it's safe to say that if you need more information about the history of Christianity in colonial Western Massachusetts than what Laura provides, you're likely well out of the general audience this book aims at. I think Laura hit the highlights as it pertains to the Housatonic/Lee/Van Deusenville area, and the Trinity Church.

The book springs forward in the second half to chronicle the uniquely strange and humorous events surrounding the Alice's Restaurant Massacree, the film "Alice's Restaurant" (itself a baffling blend of truth and fiction) and the subsequent history of the Church, having fallen out of the Brock's hands and ultimately into Arlo's. Lee closes the loop on all these wonderful events and brings us right into the modern era of the Guthrie Center, leaving the reader with an intimate feeling of hopefulness about the renewed Church and the lives surrounding it.

I suggest reading the book, listening to the song, watching the film, visiting arlo.net, and visiting Great Barrington. These are all the pieces of the puzzle. Thank you, Laura, for providing such an informative, entertaining, and loving overview of the Church that was, the Church as it is, and the Church that will be.

- J. Dock, Sept 2000

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groovy, man! I mean, like, Wow!, October 9, 2004

By	Glenn Campbell (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is more than it seems to be. It appears at first to be a rather dry history of a New England church, like many others, and the first few chapters nearly lose the reader in distant church history. But wait, this isn't just any church; it's Alice's church. You know, from the song "Alice's Restaurant." Cut to the 1960s, and you have a fascinating story of the intersection of hippies, media, folk music, idealism and the brutal demands of real life. At the serene center of it all is Arlo, who had the naivete, charm and good fortune to dump trash where he shouldn't have and write a quirky song to tell the world about it. What happens when an obscure 18-minute song becomes a hit becomes a cultural phenomenon becomes a movie? Things implode, that's what. Relationships disintegrate as the very act of recording destroys the thing being recorded (like particle physics). Author Lee is clearly a church supporter, but she is also a fine reporter who has the sense to let the story tell itself. Just when things get a little too sentimental or weird, Lee brings it back to center. Only in the last few pages does she gush uncontrolably (or lets the quotes do so). In the end, the early history of the church makes sense in the light of its afterlife. At least as portrayed in the book, the whole thing fits into a grand gestalt. Alice's Church is now the Guthrie Center, supposedly named for Woody but really an extension of Arlo. It is devoted to charitable works that are vaguely defined and seem in danger of disgressing into Sixties-like anarchy. Only the charismatic force of Arlo seems to hold it all together.