The Man Who Quit Money

March 26, 2012
In 2000, Daniel Suelo left his last $30 in a truck stop phone booth. Since then, he has "not earned, received, or spent a single dollar." He does not receive any government assistance and accepts only charity that is freely given. He currently resides in a cave in Utah's Moab Desert, where he primarily lives off the land. In this inspiring book, Sundeen (Car Camping) tells Suelo's remarkable life story and the circumstances surrounding his decision to "quit money." Suelo came from a family of fundamentalist Christians, but in college at the University of Colorado, he became fascinated with other world religionsâparticularly Hinduism and Buddhismâwhich he would explore more thoroughly on a trip to Thailand and India. While volunteering with the Peace Corps in Ecuador, Suelo came out as gay to his parents, whose refusal to accept this fact plunged Suelo into depression. Disillusioned with the world, Suelo scaled back on life, eschewing a steady job for couch surfing, volunteer work, and adventures, including working on a salmon boat, hiking Alaska's Resurrection Mountains, and hitchhiking across the country in 2000, when he finally abandoned money. Sundeen provides details of Suelo's day-to-day life, and the guiding philosophies that have enabled him, in his own words, "to live with zero money⦠Abundantly." Suelo's mission and ethos are truly admirable, and his story is equally compelling.

November 15, 2011
A sophisticated blend of memoir, biography, romantic travelogue, history and psychology, creating a marketable modern myth about a pseudo-saintly survivalist. Sundeen (The Making of Toro: Bullfights, Broken Hearts and One Author's Quest for the Acclaim He Deserves, 2003, etc.) tells the tale about how he crossed paths with Daniel Shellabarger, aka Suelo, amid the hip atmosphere he calls "Moab Chic." The author juxtaposes a suicide attempt by Suelo against his present lifestyle, evoking the image of the phoenix rising from the ashes: "Daniel Shellabarger died as a modern man driving his car over a cliff, and was reborn as an eternal man--without money or possessions, with only his two feet and two hands, trying to climb back to the top." Some readers may find it difficult to figure out whether the subject is a saintly figure, a madman or a clever political huckster. In addition to the suicide attempt, Sundeen examines Suelo's repeated mental breakdowns over a period of a few years--"I may have sacrificed my sanity but have gained something indescribable that is eternal"--and then explains how Suelo now essentially lives without money. A dumpster-diver who has repudiated the modern cash economy and lives in a cave, he has also been a regular housesitter over more than two decades. In exchange for food and shelter, he barters his services and does volunteer work, but he does not accept money (or pay taxes). Suelo is not shy about self-promotion on his website and Facebook page, where he also promotes this book but gives top billing to his organizing efforts against banks and taxation. Hopefully he is genuine about his mostly impressive lifestyle choices, but it's occasionally difficult to discern his motives from this text. An ambiguous collaboration, with sundry forms of cross-marketing that raise a caveat lector sign for readers willing to take the plunge and read this modern picaresque.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2012
In today's dire economic climate, in which more and more people are struggling to make ends meet, it may seem startling, and a little puzzling, to encounter someone who rejects money altogether. Yet Daniel Suelo, a well-educated, fiftysomething homeless-by-choice man living in the canyon lands near Moab, Utah, has not only refused any connection with currency but has thrived without it since surrendering his last dollars in a phone booth in 2000. Sundeen, a now-successful freelance writer who first befriended Suelo when he was purposely homeless himself, portrays this free spirit in a thoughtful and engrossing biography that also explores society's fixation with financial and material rewards. In tracing the roots of Suelo's motivations and personal philosophy, Sundeen recounts his antihero's upbringing in an Evangelical Christian family, short stint with the Peace Corps, disillusionment with traditional forms of charity, and eventual abandonment of the working life. Although few readers will even consider emulating Suelo's scavenger lifestyle, his example will at least provoke some serious soul-searching about our collective addiction to cash.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)