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

by Gwendolyn Bounds

Book Overview

Forced from her downtown Manhattan apartment by the terrorist attack of September 11, journalist Wendy Bounds was delivered to Guinan's doorstep -- a legendary Irish drinking hole and country store nestled along the banks of the Hudson River in the small town of Garrison, New York -- by a friend.

Captivated by the bar's charismatic but ailing owner and his charming, motley clientele, Bounds uprooted herself permanently and moved to tiny Garrison,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060564075
• ISBN13: 9780060564070
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A warm place with warm friends

"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.

This is an Amazing Book

If you're the type of person that yearns for a crisp fall day in America or yearns for escape to a quieter, slower pace-you will love this book. I cried on page 72, and I laughed uncontrollably out loud on page 265. If you think that America has lost its way, it hasn't. Little Chapel on the River takes us to a place where time forgot...and it still lives. This book details several themes: 1. The genuine kindness of neighbors (yes it still exists in America) 2. A search for belonging and community 3. The struggle of small business-we love it and yet it can sometimes take over your life. A blessing and sometimes a curse. 4. America itself. If this isn't the essence of what our forefathers fought for, and risked our lives for, I don't know what is. Jim Guinan arrived in America from Ireland in the 1950's and eventually opened up a general store & tiny pub (Guinan's) affixed to the store in the tiny hamlet on the Hudson River in Garrison, NY. Guinan's becomes a symbol for the themes in the book. Struggle, warmth, life, loss, and community. And Jim Guinan as its proprietor becomes a friend to all without baggage (Bounds says it all as you `check your life a the door') including the Governor of New York, George Pataki, as he began coming to Guinan's well before any knew Pataki. As an author myself, Wendy Bounds has a way with words that I envy...an amazing flair for texture that makes a book truly vibrant as in vibrato. Here are some of my favorites: "Snow in the city is beautiful for the first few hours. Then traffic churns it to thick black slush while the merchants and snowplows engage in warfare, one shoveling snow onto the street while the other shoves it back toward the sidewalk. "then comes the high-pitched stinging along the tracks as if thousands of tiny pushpins are being sprinkled upon the rails...and then the metal beast is upon them, white headlights shining like four eyes, earlier prey in her belly." "...the river's blood made rich from dueling..." "When the Irishman finishes [singing Danny Boy], his voice kind of drifts off out the open window. For a moment, there's only the soft patter of rain on the roof..." "...bit by bit the human duct tape that keeps this place together tightens its hold." If you loved the texture of the writing in The Bridges of Madison County, you'll love this book. If you long for the simple things in life: good friendship, good coffee, a sweet song make your skin tingle...you should read this book. This is a book that becomes a part of you. Reading for the soul. Reading for the senses.

Coming home to a place she'd never been before

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.

You'll want to visit

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.

A beautifully crafted tale

This book's message reminds me of a song on Jack Johnson's newest CD. In the song, "Breakdown," he sings, "I hope this old train breaks down. Then I could take a walk around and see what there is to see. And time is just a melody. All the people in the street walk as fast as their feet can take them. I just roam through town." In this beautifully written tale Bounds teaches us that it's OK to roam because it's then that we might just find what we're looking for. It took something as dramatic as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to get Bounds to realize this. It was then that she moved from lower Manhattan a block from the Trade Center to a tiny town up the Hudson River where life is more like the way it once was. People take time to get to know -- and help -- their neighbors. Like so many small towns, a chapel is the main gathering place, though this one isn't the typical house of worship. It's a bar on the river where the town's characters gather night after night to trade stories, jokes and barbs and even find support. And when their chapel is threatened, they come together to help protect it, including Bounds. I'm willing to bet that this book will make most readers remember a simpler time, and perhaps encourage them to seek those days one more time.