The Man Who Quit Money

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.

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.

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.