Pieces of Someday: One Woman's Search for Meaning in Lawyering, Family, Italy, Church, and a Tiny Jewish High School

by Jan Vallone

Winner of the Reader Views Reviewers' Choice Award Have you ever asked yourself, "What is the purpose of my life?" If so, read this book. At the age of forty-four, Jan Vallone is everything her Italian American parents brought her up to be--a lawyer, wife and mother who owns a vintage home and takes European vacations. But instead of feeling happy and successful, she's consumed by frustration and anxiety that threaten to shatter her marriage and have dimmed her faith. Discarding prosperity and prestige, she takes a job teaching English at a yeshiva--an Orthodox Jewish high school--though she was raised Catholic. There, she opens her heart to her students, who bloom under her tutelage and teach her the meaning of faith and fulfillment. Set in New York, Seattle and Italy, this memoir portrays how one woman fuses the facets of her life--family, career, ethnicity, spirituality and dreams--into a cohesive picture as luminous as stained glass. Includes a special vocation workshop for readers who would like to discover their callings.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2010

About the author

Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Jan Vallone is the granddaughter of Sicilian immigrants. An insatiable life-long learner, she holds a law degree from New York University School of Law, a Masters in Teaching from Seattle Pacific University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She has also done graduate work at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. After practicing law for eighteen years in Manhattan and in Seattle, Jan became an English teacher at a yeshiva high school. There, she and her students founded a literary journal rated excellent by The National Council of Teachers of English. Currently, Jan teaches literature and writing at a Pacific Northwest university. Her stories have appeared in Guideposts Magazine, English Journal, Writing It Real and Curriculum in Context. Pieces of Someday, a memoir, is her first full-length book. When Jan is not writing, reading or teaching, she enjoys gardening, Italian language study, traveling and spending time with her husband, children and friends.

Reviews

[Sanjeev · Rating 1 out of 5]

The negative tone of this book makes it a painful reading. Jan dislikes or hates every thing in her life except for being in Rome.Too much religious text, whether it fits in with the flow of the story or not. Jan Vallone teaches English writing in a Jewish school but her own writing is so poor. Has no flow at all.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pieces of Someday, the memoir of Jan Vallone, tells the story of an Italian-American woman who, after decades of striving to fulfill the wishes of her parents, comes to realize that she hasn’t yet discovered her true self.

So, at age 44, Jan leaves her law practice to teach English in a yeshiva high school — perhaps a curious career move for a Catholic lawyer, but there’s no doubt that for Jan, a whole new journey had begun. Jan’s search to balance her career and family with her own individual pursuit of happiness has been a lifelong struggle, but once she begins following her heart, good things follow.

The book takes us through Jan’s life in New York, Seattle, and various trips to Italy — and she never skims over the difficult parts, namely a strained relationship with her father, marital problems, infertility, and struggles with her own faith. Instead, Jan carries us with her through her conflicting emotions and values, often with a sense of dry humor that I found entirely relatable.

Jan’s word selection is superb and her rich descriptions pick up the reader and gently drop her into each scene. One of my favorites is toward the end of the book when Jan and her family go to Sicily to see the remembrance of her grandmother that, as family legend had it, her grandfather had erected back in their small village of Castelvetrano:

"We walked silent, filed around it, skirting a rusty railing collapsed at its feet. The grotto — ivy shrouded, suckers crumbling its surface, shoot tips tasseling its mouth. Inside, bird-soiled Mary prayed with fingerless rosary-strung hands, and the altar, sooty, fractured, was ankle-deep in trash. Outside in the porcelain photo, my grandmother, half my age, smiled above the tarnished plaque. . . ."

I give Pieces of Someday four espresso cups out of five and recommend it to anyone who has struggled with balancing what is expected of you with what you truly want — and also to those who simply enjoy good, descriptive writing.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, Jan Vallone--you had me at Seasonal Affective Disorder!

I will admit right off that I had a very personal connection with this post. I could relate to so much of what Vallone wrote about--being stuck in the wrong career, trying to find your calling, dealing with family of origin issues, and--yes--the gray dreariness of the Pacific Northwest. When a reader encounters a book that makes such a connection, it is hard not to love it.

But what about a reader who doesn't have the same connection? Is this still a book they might want to read? I would say yes. Vallone's prose is just beautiful. Her chapters read more like essays and were not always in chronological order, which I quite liked. I think that structure really added a nice dimension to the book.

This book deals with spirituality--Vallone is Catholic and begins teaching at a yeshiva--but it isn't overpowering and definitely falls more in line with spirituality than religion. Each "part" begins with two excerpts--one from the Bible and one from the Torah, which sets the theme for the following chapters. However, Vallone never comes across as preachy in any way.

Pieces of Someday is a book that I will not soon forget and, even if you are comfortable in your vocation and have no interest in spiritual biographies, I think anyone would find this to be a worthwhile book.

I received an electronic copy of the this book in return for an honest review. I received no other compensation for this post.

[Michelle Kidwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pieces of Someday
One Woman's Search for Meaning in Lawyering, Family, Italy, Church, and a Tiny Jewish High School
Jan Vallone
Copyright 2013

In Pieces of Some Jan Vallone shares what it was like growing up with a perfectionist Father.  We learn of Jan's desire to please her Father by trying yo follow the path he choose for her, but also she shows us how unsatisfied that makes her feel.  It tells of how she spent years not feeling satisfied in her career as an attorney until she realizes what she really desires is to be an English Teacher.  She loved reading and did some writing growing up.  After her daughter struggles through school though she begins to realize her desire to be a teacher.

Becoming a teacher seemed to be a natural progression for her perhaps it was because her Mother wss a teacher but it was also something deeper than that.

We learn to of how she and her husband Mark adopt two kids after she is unable to get pregnant first Cristin then Sean.

Jan shares about how out of place she felt sometimes growing up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood and going to a school that was mostly Jewish despite being Italian Catholic but she would later come to teach in a Jewish High School.

I give this book five out of five stars for its candid honesty and its in depth look at one womans struggle to find who she is.

[morninglightmama · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a memoir made up of more questions than answers, more seeking than finding, more wondering than storytelling. I appreciated the author's humility in openly baring her worries and fears and abundant questions about her own life experiences and those of her family members. Vallone writes with elegance and beauty, much more poetically than I would have expected from someone with a background in law! While I was somewhat confused by the bouncing-around nature of the book's chronology, I understood the impact the author was intending with this type of set-up. Personally, I needed to do some shuffling back and forth at times to get reestablished when the time shifted significantly from one chapter to the next, but in the end, I feel that I had gotten all the puzzle pieces in place.

[bumblethunderbeast · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think having met Jan makes this memoir even more delightful than it would have been otherwise. I already wanted to know more of her story before I picked up the book. That being said, I was profoundly moved in places. The description of her high school students was particularly vibrant. She did a great job of highlighting the simultaneous pleasure and pain of opening your heart to adolescents on a daily basis. And I finished this book wanting to know still more. Whether she tells more of her story or creates a fictional cast of characters, I want to read her next book. Her voice weaves deep insights into pithy descriptions and the occasional Springsteen lyric.

[Les Lamkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pieces of Someday is a beautifully-written account of fathers and daughters, teachers and students, successes and failures—the wonderful offspring of what Vallone calls her ‘dominant ponder gene.’ Holding up a defiant hand against the cynicism that has come to mark so much of America’s story, she insists that the greatest success may be measured, not in the things we accumulate, but in the lives we touch.

[Nita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful imagery and language in this well-told memoir of a woman trying to find herself. She struggles with marriage, career, infertility, parents, life. It's a woman's tale. I don't know what else to say. Read it.

[CathyNJ Truppo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book!

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoir written by a Seattle author...

On page 120- excellent book!

[Jody]

Even at the end, I felt like the author was still seeking happiness. Hope she finds it someday.