Vaka: A memoir through the hell of chronic illness

by Caress Cauthen

Vaka is the powerful, heartbreaking account of one young woman’s survival from a traumatic childhood cult into an impossible illness as an adult that explores the topics of addiction, mental illness, the modern-day health epidemic, sacrificial love, Satan, faith in God, religious improprieties and walking the tight rope between life and suicide. Subjected to what is undeniably one of the most unusual, acute cases of environmental illness, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and mitochondrial disease, twenty-six-year-old Caress Cauthen is forced through a horrifically remarkable plight to try and save her own life. When her resources and support from friends and family become exhausted early on in her illness, she ends up homeless, on her own and in the most insurmountable of circumstances. Through a heart-stopping, unsparing, asymmetrical style of writing, she takes us through her nightmarish hell on earth that consists of moving locations 14 different times over the course of three years, all while trying to survive an unrelenting, life-threatening condition. Over the course of these years, she ends up living in a garage, a motel room, a camper, a dog kennel and a tent in the woods. As her illness rapidly deteriorates, she becomes allergic to virtually everything man-made and is unable to be inside traditional facilities like houses and stores due to toxic constituents. She is eventually forced into a life of solitude, living in a shed, where she is no longer able to interact with other people. In the wake of years of abuse, mistreatment, neglect, trauma and copious amounts of emotional and physical stress, she is left completely disabled, unable to speak and nearly bed-bound. She paints a beautiful literary nightmare for her readers through her emotionally provocative poetry, prosetry and photography.

502 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2019

Reviews

[Francesca Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book by far that I’ve read this decade. You have got to read this. Amazing book. Get it, read it now! You won’t regret it