The Man Who Quit Money

Mark Sundeen

Mar 2012 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Grand Prize Winner of the 2015 Green Book Festival 

Mark Sundeen's new book, The Unsettlers, is coming in January 2017 from Riverhead Books

In 2000, Daniel Suelo left his life savings-all thirty dollars of it-in a phone booth. He has lived without money-and with a newfound sense of freedom and security-ever since. The Man Who Quit Money is an account of how one man learned to live, sanely and happily, without earning, receiving, or spending a single cent. Suelo doesn't pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He lives in caves in the Utah canyonlands, forages wild foods and gourmet discards. He no longer even carries an I.D. Yet he manages to amply fulfill not only the basic human needs-for shelter, food, and warmth-but, to an enviable degree, the universal desires for companionship, purpose, and spiritual engagement. In retracing the surprising path and guiding philosophy that led Suelo into this way of life, Sundeen raises provocative and riveting questions about the decisions we all make, by default or by design, about how we live-and how we might live better.

Ratings and reviews

Mark Sundeen has found an interesting subject in Daniel Suelo who is conducting a Walden's Pond experiment in the Utah canyonlands - living without money and off the fat of the land since 2000. Suelo didn't reach this point in his life easily and the author does a good job of chronicling how he got there. The storm and stress that lead to Suelo simplifying his life in the Moab includes a fundamental Christian household, his coming to terms with his homosexuality and the subsequent rejection of his sexual orientation by his parents. One of the most revealing comments in the book comes when Suelo's parents feel they can relate to Suelo's existence living penniless in the desert since it is familiar from the bible and emulates Christ, yet his homosexuality is unsupportable since it flies in the face of their moral teachings. Suelo reminds me of Timothy Treadwell from Werner Herzog's movie 'Grizzly Man' - whose dissatisfaction with society lead him to the splendid isolation of the wilderness. While Suelo is unlikely to meet his fate by wandering into a hungry Grizzly, you wonder what the culmination of his experiment will be and how sustainable is this life style as he ages.

Although they don't speak of the mechanics of how Daniel lives his life exactly this book does a great job in show us Daniels life and how he got to the point of giving up money.

I've never understood when people called a piece of writing "beautiful." Then I read this book. Now I can offer from my heart words like beautiful, inspiring, educational. Thank you for this timeless piece about Daniel, yes, and also about each one of us and collectively all of us.

About the author

Mark Sundeen's work has appeared in The New York Times, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, and The Believer. He is the author of Car Camping and The Making of Toro, and co-author of the New York Times bestselling North by Northwestern. He lives in Colorado. Author website: marksundeen.com