The Man Who Quit Money

Description

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."This is a beautiful, thoughtful and wonderful book. I suspect I may find myself thinking about it every day for the rest of my life." – Elizabeth Gilbert

"Mark Sundeen’s astonishing and unsettling book goes directly to the largest questions about how we live and what we have lost in a culture obsessed with money. Sundeen tells the story of a gentle and generous man who sought the good life by deciding to live without it. What’s most unsettling and astonishing is that he appears to have succeeded." – William Greider

"Maybe it’s just this odd, precarious moment we live in, but Daniel Suelo’s story seems to offer some broader clues for all of us. Mark Sundeen’s account will raise subversive and interesting questions in any open mind." – Bill McKibben 

“Suelo isn’t a conflicted zealot, or even a principled aesthete. He’s a contented man who chooses to wander the Earth and do good. He’s also someone you’d want to have a beer with and hear about his life, as full of fortune and enlightenment as it is disappointment and darkness… At its core, The Man Who Quit Money is the story of a man who decided to live outside of society, and is happier for it.” –Men’s Journal 

 “Sundeen deftly portrays [Suelo] as a likeable, oddly sage guy… who finds happiness in radical simplicity [and] personifies a critique that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt remorse on the treadmill of getting and spending.” –Outside Magazine 
 

“Captivating… Suelo emerges as a remarkable and complex character… Sundeen brings his subject vividly to life [and] makes a case for Suelo’s relevance to our time.” –The Seattle Times 
 

“Exquisitely timed… The Man Who Quit Money is a slim, quick read that belies the weightiness underneath. The very quality that makes us see a “man walking in America” (Suelo’s words) and be simultaneously attracted and repelled is exposed here in beautiful detail.” –The Missoula Independent

“In America, renunciation breaks the rules, but, as everyone evicted from Zuccotti Park or bludgeoned at Berkeley or just steamed in-between knows, the rules require breaking. Sundeen… sets out to understand the process and logic behind a money-free lifestyle while tracing the spiritual, psychological, physical, and philosophical quest that led this particular man to throw over our society’s arguably counterfeit-yet-prevailing faith in money, or, more precisely, in debt.” –The Rumpus 
 

“A fascinating subject… both resonant as a character study and infinitely thought-provoking in its challenge to all our preconceptions about modern life—and about the small and large hypocrisies people of all philosophies and religious paths assume they need to accept.” –The Salt Lake City Weekly 
 

“Thoughtful and engrossing biography that also explores society’s fixation with financial and material rewards…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.” –Booklist 

Mark Sundeen is an award-winning writer whose nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, and The Believer. He is the author of Car Camping (HarperCollins, 2000) and The Making of Toro (Simon & Schuster, 2003), and co-author of North by Northwestern (St. Martin’s, 2010), which was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. He has taught fiction and nonfiction in the MFA programs at the University of New Mexico and Western Connecticut State University. He lives in Montana and Utah.

1. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Some people seem to be intrigued by the choices Daniel Suelo has made. Others are angered. Why? How did you react to his story?

What did Suelo give up to live as he does? What has he gained? Do you think the tradeoff was worth it?

Henry David Thoreau believed that “work is the tasks that give life meaning, regardless of whether money is earned.” What is your definition of work? Do you think Suelo “works”?

Suelo quickly became disillusioned working at a homeless shelter because “he was paid to be helpful. It wasn’t coming from his heart.” Do financial incentives always compromise good intentions?

Most of us perform moneyless acts every day without taking note—for instance, taking care of our children, or visiting a sick friend. What “jobs” do you perform for which you don’t receive money? How do the rewards and frustrations differ from those of “real work”?

Contemplating a life without the safety net of medical care, Suelo says, “If we’re following our path, then worryingabout what could or should happen is a worse illness than what could or should happen.” Do you agree? Is there any wisdom the rest of us can draw from this point of view?

At one point in the book, Mark Sundeen observes, “Begging may be the most shameful act in America.” Why do you think this is?

Suelo’s religious path has taken him from Christian fundamentalism to atheism to Buddhism to a belief that all religions teach the same truths. How do your beliefs affect your ideas and behavior regarding money, possessions, and reward?

Suelo says that money is an illusion––an idea reinforced by the collapse of financial markets, real estate prices, and currencies. And yet the things we buy with money––food, clothing, shelter––and clearly real. What do you think? Is money real?

What are some steps you’ve taken to live a more simple or meaningful life? Have they succeeded? Why or why not?

What do you make of Suelo’s observation that “Chance is God”? Do you agree? Have you ever tried to put this idea into practice? What happened? Are there things you would never leave to chance?

Suelo’s decision to quit money is part of life–long spiritual quest. What was he seeking? Do you think he has attained it? What is your quest? Have you attained what you were seeking?

Suelo has yet to find a significant community that shares his desire to live without money. What belief do you hold so strongly that you would be willing to “walk alone” in order to live by it?

Before he quit money, Suelo says, “My hardships were long–term, complex anxieties: What am I going to do with my life, how am I going to pay rent or pay insurance, what’s retirement going to be like, what am I going to do for a career, what are people going to think if I do this or that.” Now, he says, “My hardships are simple and immediate: food, shelter and clothing. They’re manageable because they’re in the present.” Do you think it is possible to achieve Suelo’s peace of mind without making his extreme choices? Why or why not?

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Additional information

Dimensions	0.7000 × 5.4500 × 8.2000 in
Imprint	Riverhead Books
ISBN-13	09781594485695
ISBN-10	1594485690
Author	Mark Sundeen
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	PHI034000, BUS050030
Subjects	PHI034000, outdoors, personal finance, biographies, motivational books, motivational books for women, money, autobiographies, business books, biographies of famous people, wildlife, adventure books, self development books, self improvement books, motivational books for men, finance books, philosophy books, financial books, budgeting, ap bio, finance, nature, adventure, business, self help, biography, motivation, environment, wealth, debt, philosophy, earth, BUS050030, self help books, Wilderness, economy, budget, autobiography, natural history