The Alchemy of Illness

Drawing on her own experience with CFIDS (chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome), the author of this collection of eight essays explores the mystery of human pain. ``Illness is a familiar yet foreign landscape,'' she writes. ``It remains a wilderness . . . despite its continuing presence in our lives.'' Duff spent ``the better part of two years'' in bed; during her sickness she read widely and voluminously, pursuing ``the meaning and purposes of illness.'' Bringing together insights from psychology, religion and anthropology, and explicating the words of shamans and philosophers from many cultures, Duff tracks the universality of illness and the curious contradictions--the sense of freedom, for example--that emerge in its midst. Her own healing, achieved through ``tedious, tenuous and life-giving labor,'' is a model of hope. Duff is a counselor in northern New Mexico. (Mar.)