Gwendolyn Bounds
For four decades Jim Guinan and his family ran a grocery store/tavern just across the Hudson River from West Point. It’s the kind of place that’s important only to the people who patronize it, but to them it’s very important. It became important to Gwendolyn Bounds when she moved to the area, forced out of her Manhattan apartment by damage from the 9/11 bombings.
Bounds has written a sensitive book about the place and people, Jim Guinan in particular. She portrays them without ever descending into purple prose. Neither does she give in to the temptation to make her observations of the particular into universals, leaving those inevitable conclusions to the reader.
This is a nice small book about a nice, small place. When you’re done with the book, you’ll wish you lived near the tavern and could visit with its staff and patrons.
Update:
Sadly, as reported in Gwendolyn Bounds’ Little Chapel blog, “on January 31, 2008, Guinan’s closed after nearly 50 years of defying time and predictions”. The New York Times took note.