I Just Kept Walking

by Cass Ryder

I Just Kept Walking is the true and harrowing story of a woman who has survived 20 years of homelessness in the United States. The factual account of hardships faced - sleeping rough, the loneliness and extreme isolation, the cold and hunger, and the ever-present threat of assault - make for disturbing reading, with graphic accounts of street-level destitution, frequent arrests, bodily hi-jackings, and invasive mind-control. The central proposition put forward is that the “Vulnerables” – who include the homeless, the mentally ill, prison inmates and those with alternative lifestyles - are being used for experimentation purposes by privately funded agencies, and that these categories have been specifically targeted because they are not in a position to speak out about what is happening to them.

The narrator’s lucid insights into her own mental state and that of others she has brushed up against in cold weather shelters is explored through a blend of interior monologue and ongoing dialogue in the form of emails between Cass and her sister, who says in her Foreword: “This is the tragic story of my own sister – now in her 50s – who is still homeless, and whom I am desperately trying to persuade to come home…To my knowledge no person who has been living on the streets for this length of time has been articulate enough to write about the experience, and her journal stands as a testimony of one woman's resilience and her survival tactics in the face of almost insuperable odds…” As an authentic and refreshingly honest account of what it's actually like to be a homeless female, I Just Kept Walking is an important and ground-breaking work which deserves to be read by the wider public.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography

Paperback

First published November 8, 2016

Reviews

[Cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and tragic, and at the same time informative. It's clear from the emails which take place between the 2 sisters, that the homeless subject of the book is suffering from some kind of schizophrenia, which in large part explains why she became homeless in the first place. Anybody who has ever wondered what it's like to be a homeless female in the United States, and sleeping rough should read this.

[Julie Borneman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting as I have encountered this particular homeless woman many times in Loudoun County. It was insightful to learn more about her. I found it very difficult to read the incoherent conspiracy ramblings. Difficult both because of the subject matter and the scattered logic.