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Little Chapel on the River: A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most
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, the picturesque river town they all call home. There she became one of the rare female regulars at the old pub and was quickly swept up into its rhythm, heartbeat, and grand history -- as related by Jim Guinan himself, the stubborn high priest of this little chapel. Surrounded by a crew of endearing, delightfully colorful characters who were now her neighbors and friends, she slowly finds her own way home. Beautifully written, deeply personal, and brilliantly insightful, Little Chapel on the River is a love story about a place -- and the people who bring it to life.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 187 reviews
January 16, 2019
This book reminds me of Richard Russo novels or Garrison Keilor's books. Americana at its core. Beautifully written, funny and thoughtful.
The blurb says it best:
The changing of the seasons in America must be old news to Americans, but to me, descriptions like these just plugged at my 'chicken-soup-for-the-soul'- emotions.
Jimmy, the high priest of the pub, was a town icon. Everybody cheered him on while he tried to keep the business afloat. Garrison without a Guinans was just unthinkable.
He had his own unique way of welcoming people into the fold.
What a beautifully ode to a little bit of American heart and soul. I could feel Jimmy's kiss on the cheek. I felt at home, just like Wendy. Brilliant writing, to make me want to be part of it. That's of course, if they would have served coffee as well. :-)
They actually did.
RECOMMENDED
The blurb says it best:
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.This memoir of a pub/bar/store included interesting tidbits of history particularly of the Hudson river.
Captivated by the bar's charismatic but ailing owner and his charming, motley clientele, Bounds uprooted herself permanently and moved to tiny Garrison, the picturesque river town they all call home. There she became one of the rare female regulars at the old pub and was quickly swept up into its rhythm, heartbeat, and grand history -- as related by Jim Guinan himself, the stubborn high priest of this little chapel. Surrounded by a crew of endearing, delightfully colorful characters who were now her neighbors and friends, she slowly finds her own way home.
Beautifully written, deeply personal, and brilliantly insightful, Little Chapel on the River is a love story about a place -- and the people who bring it to life.
The Indians named the river Muhheakunnuk, which means " great waters in constant motion,” or more loosely, “river that flows two ways.” In centuries to follow, she would come to be called by a new name—the mighty HudsonAnd I just loved the musical tone in the name of the "Sugar Loaf Mountain".
The changing of the seasons in America must be old news to Americans, but to me, descriptions like these just plugged at my 'chicken-soup-for-the-soul'- emotions.
Meantime, the summer renters close up shop, anxious for city life where capable doormen and superintendents keep harsh elements at bay. Those who stay can watch as the landscape strips down, unloading her buxom summer weight until she is naked, angular, severely beautiful.The characters she met, in Little Chapel by the River, like Margaret, Jimmy's daughter, changed her entire outlook on life. Margaret wore a AT&T t-shirt. Wendy tried to find some common ground and remarked on the t-shirt:
" So you work for AT&T?" I ask, leaning against the counter in what I hope is a casual pose. Lot of turmoil there right now, huh?Some folks did not call Guinans a bar. They called it the riverside chapel, where the Irish defined life according to old Irish songs and folklore. Even a few superstitions were still thrown in here and there, but it's not to be talked about around town too much. Actually, it was not called anything else but a village at the time. The one where Hello Dolly the movie was filmed.
All those layoffs? And then, to let her know I really understand what I’m talking about, I add: I write for the Wall Street Journal.
Finally she meets my eyes. She doesn’t smile. “I’m in law enforcement,” she says, lips tight. “I wear this sweatshirt so when the guys at work give me a hard time, I can tell them it stands for Ass, Tits and Temper.”
Jimmy, the high priest of the pub, was a town icon. Everybody cheered him on while he tried to keep the business afloat. Garrison without a Guinans was just unthinkable.
He had his own unique way of welcoming people into the fold.
...he takes my hand, pulls me down toward him and kisses me on the cheek. “Cead Mile Failte,” he says.I checked out the pub online afterwards and found this interesting article:Last Call at Guinan’s, an Irish Tavern Tucked Away in Upstate NY By PATRICK SAUER March 17, 2016.
I look at him, confused.
“It’s a Gaelic greeting, luv. It means ‘One hundred thousand welcomes.’ ”
What a beautifully ode to a little bit of American heart and soul. I could feel Jimmy's kiss on the cheek. I felt at home, just like Wendy. Brilliant writing, to make me want to be part of it. That's of course, if they would have served coffee as well. :-)
They actually did.
RECOMMENDED
September 1, 2018
A true story.
Gwendolyn Bounds is an ambitious reporter for the Wall Street Journal, living on Sep 11, 2011 in the shadow of the World Trade Center. When the planes strike and the towers begin to fall, she flees the city eventually stopping in the tiny hamlet of Garrison, NY. There she is welcomed into the warmth and camaraderie of the tiny Irish pub and general store of Guinan's.
Bounds shares the history of Guinan's, Garrison, and it's small cast of regulars. But that's not what Little Chapel on the River is about. It's about finding that place where you feel most at home, even if you're not looking for it. Where time slows, life, light and color grow more vivid, and friendship becomes more important than climbing the corporate ladder. That place you want to be versus simply are. Where you are your authentic self. For Bounds, Guinan's unexpectedly becomes that place. We should all be so lucky.
Warm and inviting. Highly recommended.
Gwendolyn Bounds is an ambitious reporter for the Wall Street Journal, living on Sep 11, 2011 in the shadow of the World Trade Center. When the planes strike and the towers begin to fall, she flees the city eventually stopping in the tiny hamlet of Garrison, NY. There she is welcomed into the warmth and camaraderie of the tiny Irish pub and general store of Guinan's.
Bounds shares the history of Guinan's, Garrison, and it's small cast of regulars. But that's not what Little Chapel on the River is about. It's about finding that place where you feel most at home, even if you're not looking for it. Where time slows, life, light and color grow more vivid, and friendship becomes more important than climbing the corporate ladder. That place you want to be versus simply are. Where you are your authentic self. For Bounds, Guinan's unexpectedly becomes that place. We should all be so lucky.
Warm and inviting. Highly recommended.
September 30, 2020
UPDATE: I actually finished this book a few weeks ago; I read it before and I've meant to re-read it ever since, and when I was in the library a few weeks ago, I saw it and thought, "Well, no time like the present." When I looked it up on my blog to see if I could figure out when I read it the first time, I was surprised to see how much time had passed: I first read LITTLE CHAPEL ON THE RIVER in 2006, fourteen years ago, and I read it almost at exactly the same time (September). Wow. I don't know that that means anything, but synchronicities are always cool.
How does the book stand up? Well, I stand by every word of what I wrote below. This book is wonderful, full stop. I leave my five-star rating intact.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I read this book some years ago, and I've never been able to forget it. Gwendolyn Bounds is a journalist from New York City who relocates to the little Hudson River Valley town of Garrison, where she becomes a regular at this tiny little bar and convenience store right on the commuter train tracks. This town is almost directly across the river from West Point. Here she gets to know the bar's owners and the quirky cast of regulars that exists at any such little bar. That's really all there is to the book, and it's tempting to blow it off, but it's wonderfully written and presents a beautiful portrait of a small town's watering hole, as it exists in the first years of this century.
(The bar, Guinan's, has sadly closed in the years following the passing of its old owner. When I learned this, I felt a keen sense of grief for a place I'd never visited or even seen. That's how good this book is.)
How does the book stand up? Well, I stand by every word of what I wrote below. This book is wonderful, full stop. I leave my five-star rating intact.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I read this book some years ago, and I've never been able to forget it. Gwendolyn Bounds is a journalist from New York City who relocates to the little Hudson River Valley town of Garrison, where she becomes a regular at this tiny little bar and convenience store right on the commuter train tracks. This town is almost directly across the river from West Point. Here she gets to know the bar's owners and the quirky cast of regulars that exists at any such little bar. That's really all there is to the book, and it's tempting to blow it off, but it's wonderfully written and presents a beautiful portrait of a small town's watering hole, as it exists in the first years of this century.
(The bar, Guinan's, has sadly closed in the years following the passing of its old owner. When I learned this, I felt a keen sense of grief for a place I'd never visited or even seen. That's how good this book is.)
June 2, 2007
Great story about a small town on the Hudson River and discovering what's most important in life - people, their stories, and your relationships with them.
February 6, 2017
I let this book drag out. It is one of those books that can be picked up for short reading spells and is found to be enjoyable.
After the attack on the Twin Towers, the author, among many others, had to find somewhere to live and telework while the City became rehabbed. She and her partner found the town of Garrison, NY, noted for being on the Hudson River and near West Point Military Academy in Highland. And she finds a friendly store/pub near the train station, Guinan's run by several generations of the Guinan family. In addition, Bounds winds up chipping in some time at the store and pub. Everyone picks up their coffee, rolls and newspaper at Guinans.
I only know of a few books where you can pick them up at any point and find them entertaining and get your spirits lifted. This is one of them. Filled with laughter and tears.
After the attack on the Twin Towers, the author, among many others, had to find somewhere to live and telework while the City became rehabbed. She and her partner found the town of Garrison, NY, noted for being on the Hudson River and near West Point Military Academy in Highland. And she finds a friendly store/pub near the train station, Guinan's run by several generations of the Guinan family. In addition, Bounds winds up chipping in some time at the store and pub. Everyone picks up their coffee, rolls and newspaper at Guinans.
I only know of a few books where you can pick them up at any point and find them entertaining and get your spirits lifted. This is one of them. Filled with laughter and tears.
November 18, 2024
A love letter to a pub and the people in it. Just a beauty of a book.
December 22, 2016
I salute what Gwendolyn Bounds has done here. "I found a truly great pub" seems like a topic to write about at the length of a magazine article. A couple chapters in I wondered how this became a whole book. How much could she possibly say about this place? But then I returned to the book again and again, the way she returned to Guinan’s. By the end, Guinan’s became a known place in the map of my imagination. Thanks, Bounds, for sharing it with me. This book was given to me by a friend who has his own little chapel and believes in it. I don't have such a place. I'll aim to get one someday because my friend and Bounds have made me believe.
December 28, 2012
This is a book set in my town that has opened up worlds for me. Guinans was a great focal point of Garrison and being able to read all of their stories makes me so happy and helps me connect with something so iconic about the landing. Truly a well written and moving book which will forever be one of my favorites.
February 4, 2008
I liked reading about the story of Guinan's pub/store and the Guinan family. I was less interested in the story of the author and I didn't particularly care for her writing style. Overall, it is an interesting history of an Irish immigrant family in NY and the public house that they run.
October 20, 2019
I read this for my Bookclub. It’s a great story of the way a small town really is a family. There’s not a lot of detail about 9/11, but enough to set the context of the author’s experience and why she had to find somewhere to live. It’s easy to fall right in to this story as if you are right at the bar joining them for a drink. It’s sweet in places, sad in others, it’s life.
December 1, 2020
Loved the Irish history and family strength... Now I want to go there!
Yes I recommend this book highly. Take the journey and read it for yourself.
Yes I recommend this book highly. Take the journey and read it for yourself.
November 25, 2025
A very sweet book
November 11, 2020
Charming, warm, sad, joyous telling of a young woman finding peace after 9/11 in a small town on the Hudson River.
August 14, 2015
My own personal association with Guinan's was relatively short-lived: 1985 to 1989, the years I was between high school and college and spending a lot of time doing local community theater, including a stint at Hand-to-Mouth Players in the old train depot in Garrison. During and after rehearsals we'd wander over to the Guinan store for soda and snacks (those of us still legally under-age to drink in NYS at that time), and I'm pretty sure we had at least one post-performance gathering in the Pub, if not more. I loved the feel of the place, the friendliness and family of it. And even though Bounds' memoir takes place nearly two decades later and features people I never really got to know, I felt like I was right back in Garrison as I read. I wish I could say I remember encountering any of the regulars Bounds so intimately describes, but I'd be lying. I do remember the Guinans, though, and I remember being amazed that no one behind the counter ever used the register or a notepad to tally a bill -- for someone who even in high school was math-phobic, that was an incredible and unfathomable skill, and Bounds' recounting reminded me how that felt.
I think the key to memoirs like these, that are obstensibly about a place and not necessarily about the person narrating the tale, is that the place needs to be as much of a character as the narrator and the other human inhabitants are. I think, after a bit of a rough start, Bounds nails that balance, tying the people to the place and creating a sense of why the Pub was home-away-from-home for so many, and why the family, despite their internal conflicts, fought so hard to keep it going.
Bounds' chapter-ending asides about her own childhood could be intrusive in other hands, but here strike the right counter-balance to help us understand why she personally became so bonded to Guinan's: they are just long enough to give us a sense of who she was and who she is without pulling focus from the place and other people she's writing about.
I think the key to memoirs like these, that are obstensibly about a place and not necessarily about the person narrating the tale, is that the place needs to be as much of a character as the narrator and the other human inhabitants are. I think, after a bit of a rough start, Bounds nails that balance, tying the people to the place and creating a sense of why the Pub was home-away-from-home for so many, and why the family, despite their internal conflicts, fought so hard to keep it going.
Bounds' chapter-ending asides about her own childhood could be intrusive in other hands, but here strike the right counter-balance to help us understand why she personally became so bonded to Guinan's: they are just long enough to give us a sense of who she was and who she is without pulling focus from the place and other people she's writing about.
January 3, 2012
I liked this book. A lot. Really it is a window into a magical world known as Guinan's Pub, formally in Garrison, NY, and the owner, Jim Guinan. This book delves into the history and lives of the Guinan clan and the family business, namely a pub, and store, spanning several decades. Bounds describes the daily ongoings in this community pub along with the colorful cast of characters who frequent it. A charming and poignant tale. Two of my favorite parts are as follows:
1. Bounds begins helping in the store in the early mornings and realizes the store is probably losing money rather than making a profit by opening so early. She asks Jim, the great-Guinan-patriarch why he doesn't open a bit later, and his response- "I don't know. I guess I don't want to be the one to tell those guys on the 5:09 train that they're gonna be standing out in the dark without a cup of coffee or newspaper". Word. That is the type of business I want to support.
2. Governor Pataki visits the bar on Thanksgiving. This part was so poignant, further displaying the far and wide impact this establishment, and these people, have on the community and beyond.
1. Bounds begins helping in the store in the early mornings and realizes the store is probably losing money rather than making a profit by opening so early. She asks Jim, the great-Guinan-patriarch why he doesn't open a bit later, and his response- "I don't know. I guess I don't want to be the one to tell those guys on the 5:09 train that they're gonna be standing out in the dark without a cup of coffee or newspaper". Word. That is the type of business I want to support.
2. Governor Pataki visits the bar on Thanksgiving. This part was so poignant, further displaying the far and wide impact this establishment, and these people, have on the community and beyond.
February 9, 2016
There are special places that people create in small hamlets or in neighborhoods . Guinan's was one of those places . My wife spent a weekend in Garrison Landing visiting a couple who lived a block away. The husband appears in this book.
This remembrance reminds me of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3KEh...
and for my Finnish Friends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9wE6...
This remembrance reminds me of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3KEh...
and for my Finnish Friends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9wE6...
July 29, 2018
Rarely do I find myself rushing to the internet while in the middle of a book to learn more about what I’m reading-but I did so with this story. The author tells of a captivating hole in the wall pub and its cast of characters in such a way that makes you ache a bit from not having known them the way she knew them. It’s both feel good and heartbreaking, but always engrossing. Well done!
June 27, 2008
I'm almost done with this book & am just loving it. It is easy to read entertaining & heart warming. I recommend it to everyone.
September 21, 2016
It was okay. Nice human interests stories. It wasn't as good as I was hoping.
December 27, 2024
I read Wendy's most recent book, Never Too Late, which I loved, but didn't intend to pick this one up because its subject didn't interest me. That changed when I heard a recent interview with her on Michael Easter's 2% podcast about this book, even though it had come out 20 years ago!
The book is a "love letter to a place" as Wendy describes it. I honestly don't know what else to compare it to. It's a kind of personal memoirs where the author isn't the subject.
The conversation with Michael Easter was all about "the third place" concept and how it's missing from many people's lives in America (and possibly elsewhere in the world) today. There's a loneliness epidemic. The third place used be things like churches and, yes, bars.
The book is almost painfully nostalgic, although Wendy wrote it while the pub and its owners were still functioning and alive. From the first page she makes it clear that this place and time and set of people she becomes so attached to are in this precarious position, unlikely to last much longer, and she's inclined to hold onto it as long and hard as she can.
The writing is great. The profiles of people, the dialog, the descriptions, all evocative. It's hard not to feel some level of attachment to the place yourself; I ended up looking up what happened to Guinan's after finishing the book.
The book is a "love letter to a place" as Wendy describes it. I honestly don't know what else to compare it to. It's a kind of personal memoirs where the author isn't the subject.
The conversation with Michael Easter was all about "the third place" concept and how it's missing from many people's lives in America (and possibly elsewhere in the world) today. There's a loneliness epidemic. The third place used be things like churches and, yes, bars.
Here’s the thing. Up until this point, I had never really belonged to anything, except maybe my job. No church, no volunteer groups and, forgetting one hapless year of getting my head bashed in boxing, not even a steady sport. Part of it was timing. I’d graduated from the paperback novels of my youth to come of age in the eighties with the glass ceiling already cracked and the notion that a full-time career path was the only one I’d be taking. It was a moment when power suits dominated shopping racks, housewife was a dirty word and duty meant exercising all the professional options my mother never had.
The book is almost painfully nostalgic, although Wendy wrote it while the pub and its owners were still functioning and alive. From the first page she makes it clear that this place and time and set of people she becomes so attached to are in this precarious position, unlikely to last much longer, and she's inclined to hold onto it as long and hard as she can.
The writing is great. The profiles of people, the dialog, the descriptions, all evocative. It's hard not to feel some level of attachment to the place yourself; I ended up looking up what happened to Guinan's after finishing the book.
April 22, 2021
I won't be surprised at all if this ends up being one of my all-time favorite reads in 2021. It's not a new release by any means - my copy has sat on my shelf since college - but I picked it up at just the right time.
The displacement and rediscovery Bounds experiences in a post-9/11 world is so similar to what so many have endured during this pandemic year.
"Around the newspaper, around the city, around the country everyone is trying to find their way back to some sense or normalcy," Bounds writes, "even though the rules of daily life, as we've all understood them, have just been chucked out the window for good.” Relatable, much?
The same can be said for her re-indoctrination to a world that was slowly recovering. "It's been nearly a year since the attacks and returning to the city is on the horizon... the author reflects. "Garrison was initially just an unexpected layover on the way back to town... Friends seem increasingly puzzled that we've stayed here this long, and I can't exactly blame them. A year ago, I couldn't have imagined wanting more than New York City had to offer."
Can't wait to make my own pilgrimage to Garrison, even if the Little Chapel of Guinan's is sadly long-gone.
The displacement and rediscovery Bounds experiences in a post-9/11 world is so similar to what so many have endured during this pandemic year.
"Around the newspaper, around the city, around the country everyone is trying to find their way back to some sense or normalcy," Bounds writes, "even though the rules of daily life, as we've all understood them, have just been chucked out the window for good.” Relatable, much?
The same can be said for her re-indoctrination to a world that was slowly recovering. "It's been nearly a year since the attacks and returning to the city is on the horizon... the author reflects. "Garrison was initially just an unexpected layover on the way back to town... Friends seem increasingly puzzled that we've stayed here this long, and I can't exactly blame them. A year ago, I couldn't have imagined wanting more than New York City had to offer."
Can't wait to make my own pilgrimage to Garrison, even if the Little Chapel of Guinan's is sadly long-gone.
July 4, 2021
I wish I would have found this book before the pub closed. I grabbed this book at the library book sale just as the Covid pandemic was beginning and it became apparent things would be shutting down. I grabbed closed to 50 books and prepared to quarantine. This was the first one in the pile I started to read. The opening talked about the 9/11 attacks and that is a subject that just depresses me. I decided to put the book down until life returned to normal. I am very grateful to have picked it up again.
This is a wonderfully written story that just warms your heart. I can't even begin to put into words the strength of this book. The family the friends, the pub itself just come alive to you. You like the people and the place, period.
I am a little familiar with the area and asked my husband, a West Point graduate, 'You never went to this place? I can't believe it. This sounds just like a place your friends would go."
If you get your hands on a copy of this book, read it.
This is a wonderfully written story that just warms your heart. I can't even begin to put into words the strength of this book. The family the friends, the pub itself just come alive to you. You like the people and the place, period.
I am a little familiar with the area and asked my husband, a West Point graduate, 'You never went to this place? I can't believe it. This sounds just like a place your friends would go."
If you get your hands on a copy of this book, read it.
January 19, 2022
It's an interesting and flawless book that is more historical and philosophical than entertaining or informative and deserves more than the three stars I gave it, but it doesn't quite rise to a four. The writing is excellent and the characters, along with being real people, are not disingenuously represented. I can't prove it, but this author seems as authentic as the people and place that she writes about, but it's very clear that the book is not about her.
And as genuine as the subject and characters are, nothing really happens, or changes, except for the attitude and notions of the author, which she freely admits. (Despite the fact that the book is not about her.) And the topic is, after all, an ordinary bar in small town U.S.A. In fact, the granular examination of American diversity could prove fertile ground for a number of assumptions about America's social structure, but scientific knowledge is not the goal of this book.
And as genuine as the subject and characters are, nothing really happens, or changes, except for the attitude and notions of the author, which she freely admits. (Despite the fact that the book is not about her.) And the topic is, after all, an ordinary bar in small town U.S.A. In fact, the granular examination of American diversity could prove fertile ground for a number of assumptions about America's social structure, but scientific knowledge is not the goal of this book.
September 14, 2021
This one is definitely a WINNER. Really can not remember when and where I picked this book up, or exactly what inspired me to do so. Picked it up off my book shelf strictly by chance. The timing was perfect.
This non-fiction story based on life experience of young woman who is a writer at the Wall Street Journal in New York City, living in apartment across the street from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Tells of how she went about piecing her life together for the years immediately following this tragic national event. she found herself seeking comfort in a delightful small town across the Hudson River from West Point and a small store/ bar filled with locals who become her friends and second family.
Everyone should read this book about friends and " moving on". And pull from our personal memories a place "where everyone knows your name". CHEERS!
This non-fiction story based on life experience of young woman who is a writer at the Wall Street Journal in New York City, living in apartment across the street from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Tells of how she went about piecing her life together for the years immediately following this tragic national event. she found herself seeking comfort in a delightful small town across the Hudson River from West Point and a small store/ bar filled with locals who become her friends and second family.
Everyone should read this book about friends and " moving on". And pull from our personal memories a place "where everyone knows your name". CHEERS!
April 25, 2022
When we lived on Long Island we would eat breakfast every Saturday morning at a place called Hapi's. Everyone there knew some of each other's stories. We greeted each other as friends, though we may not have had any contact other than this diner. This book brought back memories of those days. Thank you.
I recommend this book to anyone who has had a place like Hapi's in your life. Also. I recommend this book to anyone who has not had a place like that in their lives.
Briefly, this is a biography of a place where the author took refuge after 9/11 destroyed her apartment. She introduces a host of characters who are regulars as well as providing a very brief history of Garrison NY, where this pub and connected store is located.
She writes well with a calmness that belies the background of her move to Garrison.
Read this book. You won't regret it. I'm glad I did.
I recommend this book to anyone who has had a place like Hapi's in your life. Also. I recommend this book to anyone who has not had a place like that in their lives.
Briefly, this is a biography of a place where the author took refuge after 9/11 destroyed her apartment. She introduces a host of characters who are regulars as well as providing a very brief history of Garrison NY, where this pub and connected store is located.
She writes well with a calmness that belies the background of her move to Garrison.
Read this book. You won't regret it. I'm glad I did.
March 14, 2021
This story very much resonated for me as so many of us struggle to find our place and community during these crazy times. It also makes me sentimental for these spots when they haven’t really been available in the same way during the pandemic. It also struck a chord as I contemplate the next phase of my life and consider where to make my next “home”. I found the book charming. Had to google the place and people upon finishing the book especially since it was written 16 years ago. Warning: don’t do until the book is done. I’ll leave it at that.
May 3, 2023
Gwendolyn Bounds does an incredible job dropping you into the story. The events of 9/11 happening next door, to rushing upstate to Garrison, NY, to meeting all of these wonderful people she’d grow to call family at Guinan’s Pub. Truly a remarkable memoir and if you can grab a copy, it makes for an easy, comforting read, like you’re hanging out in a bar and your friends are telling you their stories. Magnificent!
March 30, 2018
The author does a really good job of immersing the reader in the world of the story, but besides that the actual story didn't seem that interesting to me. It appears that overall she expected them not to warm up to her, but they did. That's essentially the entire story. But worth the read of getting lost in the world of a small family place. Not many of those around anymore.
September 20, 2019
I liked how this book was based off September 11. I liked this book however, I found it very confusing with the many people she talked about. This book was a beautifully written and it encompasses the joy of being part of a "community" with people from all walks of life caring about you and for you.
February 7, 2020
I bought a house in Garrison 5 years ago. I loved this book. It gave me a new appreciation for a place I love. Guinan’s had gone by the time I moved here but I throughly this story I have learned all sorts of interesting things I never knew about Garrison and its many characters. Thank you Gwendolyn Bounds for a lovely, heartwarming book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 187 reviews