Little Chapel on the River: A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most (Hardcover)

by Gwendolyn Bounds (Author) "The sky is a brilliant blue and clear, the air unusually warm for Septembera sign we are still closer to August than October..." (more)
Key Phrases: Jim Guinan, West Point, Mary Jane (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Bounds and her partner lived across the street from the World Trade Center; they both wrote for the Wall Street Journal and were getting ready to go to work when the planes struck the towers on 9/11. They made their way to friends uptown, and in the following months, they parked themselves in a variety of temporary accommodations, as their building was uninhabitable. One friend brought them to Guinan's, an old Irish bar in the small, upper Hudson River town of Garrison, N.Y.—and Bounds soon felt at home. She gradually let herself become enmeshed in the Guinan family saga, as well as in the intertwined tales of the regular customers. Before long, "the invisible red velvet rope" lifted, and she was helping out at the bar and setting up shop when the aging owner was hospitalized for diabetes-related surgery, buying a ramshackle home nearby and generally becoming included in the Guinan extended family. Bounds's story isn't flashy or dramatic; it's as low-key as her new, non-Manhattan friends. It modestly reminds us that in this uncertain world, when you come to a place that speaks to you, you should hold it dear and treasure it while it lasts. Photos. Agent, David Black. (July)
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From Booklist
A Metro North commuter line snakes out of New York City along the Hudson River, and one of its stops is a store with an attached tavern. The establishment's sociology is Bounds' topic, one she adopted serendipitously as a result of September 11. The terrorist attacks damaged her apartment and workplace, the Wall Street Journal; she and her partner found what they initially intended to be temporary refuge in the town of Garrison. She eventually moved there permanently, an outgrowth of her increasing familiarity with the tavern's proprietor, Irishman Jim Guinan, his family, and the bar's regulars. Over beers and smokes, their life stories bounce around the bar with the mock-insults of people who've known one another over the 40 years Guinan's been in business. The slower pace appeals to Bounds, and she adjusts to its rhythms, filling in behind the bar as the torch passes from Guinan to his son. Without gauzy romanticism, Bounds captures the warmth of the place and the rootedness it symbolizes. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060564067
• ISBN-13: 978-0060564063
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #356,446 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A warm place with warm friends, October 12, 2005

By	Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Little Chapel on the River", a delightful book by Gwendolyn Bounds, is a story of three families....the Guinans, who run the local pub and store, the extended Guinan family (patrons, mostly) of Garrison, New York and the family of the author, herself. It's a "feel good" book in the best possible sense.

Having been displaced by the attacks on 9/11, Wendy and her girlfriend, Kathryn, are introduced to the tiny hamlet of Garrison just across the river from West Point. Within a short time, Wendy has begun to make friends at Guinan's and ends up being a part of the entourage that makes its way into Guinan's each morning and evening. Along the way, the author finds more than a few things about herself as she begins to piece together what's missing from her life.

Bounds is enticingly descriptive about the characters she meets at Guinan's. Some, naturally, are small town skeptics regarding this new face in the crowd but without giving much more than an inch, Wendy finds herself enmeshed in their lives as they become her new friends, far from the roaring din of Manhattan. There's Fitz, a former U.S. federal marshal and Vietnam war veteran who likes to butt heads with Dan Donnelly, the "limousine liberal" lawyer. Jane and Mary Ellen form a duo of town females who help out at the pub and enjoy Guinan's to the fullest. Their loyalty is never questioned. The list of patrons goes on. The real story, though, centers around the Guinan family....Jim, an emigré from Ireland and his four children. This is indeed a family that despite its ups and downs is a close-knit unit that takes care of its own...and while they're doing so, take care of everyone else, too. Having been drawn into the life of a small, warm place, Wendy, Kathryn and their "bonus puppy", Dolly, decide to make Garrison their home. Even Governor George Pataki has a cameo role in this book.

The author keeps a good pace throughout and one gets a terrific insider's view of life at Guinan's. To say "Little Chapel on the River" has a happy ending does not in any way betray or diminish Bounds's writing. Rather it enhances it, I suspect, because goodness begets goodness and there's plenty of it here. One hint that might help the reader enjoy the book even more... most of the "action" takes place in the hours of darkness, so reading this book at night gives it more meaning and consequence.

I applaud Gwendolyn Bounds and her "Little Chapel on the River". Guinan's is a place that time has not so much passed by, but preserved. The author has done a magnificent job in relating the tales that go on in this little place on the Hudson.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming home to a place she'd never been before, July 23, 2005

By	Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Sometimes Life throws us a curve, and we land somewhere we didn't expect to be. And that place turns out to be the home we should have been looking for all along. That's what happened to NYC residents Wendy Bounds and Kathryn Kranhold in the aftermath of 9/11. Their post-traumatic experiences eventually put them in Garrison, a small Hudson River settlement 50 miles north of Grand Central Station. What makes Garrison most memorable is a combination store-and-bar called Guinan's (GUY-nenz). Named after proprietor Jim Guinan, the building serves as a newspaper outlet for rail commuters, a refreshment stand for thirsty West Pointers, a monthly mecca of Irish ballads for local musicians, and the social center of the community. How this family business got started and keeps on going is the real story, and it comes to light now because Wendy is a Wall Street Journal reporter. Her journalistic instinct led her to take notes and record conversations; her heart led her to a real estate agent to make permanent her connection with the people and the area. The CHEERS theme song got it right: You want to be where everyone knows your name. A warm, beautiful, compelling, and true example of sense of place.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll want to visit, July 5, 2005

By	A. Prentice (Hudson Valley, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In this book, Wendy Bounds does two things really well that are really hard. First, she writes about her friends and neighbors with both clarity and kindness, capturing their voices, their struggles and strengths--as well as their faults--with grace and humor. You can picture vividly the people she meets as a newcomer to a small town and, as she did, you grow to appreciate and then like them a lot. Her own story of her life after September 11 is compelling enough, but she includes it modestly with that of her new extended multigenerational Irish-American family.
Second, she describes a place - Garrison, New York, on the Hudson River - that is hard to describe without banalities, but she does it. It's unique, it's beautiful, it's historic - somehow she says all that and more and it sounds much better. Anyone who has gazed at the Hudson - perhaps at any river - and wished they could convey how it makes them feel will love this book.