Julie Rehmeyer felt like she was going to the desert to die. Julie fully expected to be breathing at the end of the trip-but driving into Death Valley felt like giving up, surrendering. She'd spent years battling a mysterious illness so extreme that she often couldn't turn over in her bed. The top specialists in the world were powerless to help, and research on her disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, was at a near standstill. Having exhausted the...

"A literary, historical exploration about the way in which our industrialized lives have made us sick--from diarist Alice James and the 19th century neuraesthenics to current day chronic and stress-related illnesses--that seeks to answer the question who gets sick, and why?"--