In the spirit of full disclosure, I am privileged to be one of Daniel's friends, going back decades to our college years. I visited Daniel in Ecuador 3 times, and am one, like Damian (who also wrote an Amazon review), who is personally familiar with and involved with many of the stories that highlight Daniel's journey.As Mark Sundeen points out in this biography, my own life on the surface is dramatically different than Daniel's. I live in the suburbs, and have worked toward goals which, like my cookie cutter suburban house, match the goals of my neighbors and upper-middle-class colleagues.I think most large "goals" are never met without compromise - that is, compromise of one's values in order to meet them. I financed my suburban home when it was built, taking a loan knowing I would be in debt for decades. And the loan ended up being with a bank that was well known for its predatory loan practices. The toxic debt completely sank the much larger bank that acquired it during the financial meltdown.My values? Live within my means. Own a home. Avoid debt. Stick humbly by my Christian beliefs. Don't support exploitive companies. Value life over money. Live simply. Enjoy the latest Apple gadget. Drive a nice car. Save the Earth's environment. Give freely. Get a good interest rate. Conflict, Conflict, Conflict...The author, Mark Sundeen, can also be seen as a minor character in the book through his first person narrative voice. I'm glad, because he humbly admits that he's like the rest of us. I can identify with Mark. While money isn't his primary value, he still gets a kind of pleasure out of reading his social security statement and understanding that his writing career has moved him into a "comfort zone", away from the humble poverty of a restaurant cook in Moab. He's a writer, so he's not swimming in wealth, but he confesses to enjoying getting that government statement.The thing is, Daniel's keenly focused goals are much more driven by his values. Perhaps this is true of all of the respected influential people in our lives. Perhaps this is true of the great and good figures of history we admire. These good people embrace their values with a kind of seriousness few of us ever achieve. Mark Sundeen writes about events in Daniel's life that have sculpted those values. As with his book, "North by Northwestern", Mark includes family and community as sculpting forces. Moab, Utah, can be seen as a character in this book too, alongside Daniel's parents and friends. And Mark Sundeen doesn't shy away from the intimately personal, or the tragically traumatic. All are part of the sculpture.Like all of us, Daniel Suelo has many goals. This book is primarily about his achieving a kind of content freedom. He finds security in giving up the very thing that most of us think will give us security -- money. He steps aside from any power money has over him by acknowledging that it is an illusion that separates all of us from physical reality. He lives without money, period. This seems like a lofty goal, but Daniel isn't some kind of ascetic guru on a mountaintop. In fact he's made a few mistakes. And he's made a few compromises -- for example, utilizing the public library and the services of Google, in order to communicate what he has to say. Without carrying or using money, he's someone who lives abundantly, and someone with whom people enjoy spending time.Mark Sundeen tells lots of stories. I enjoyed his book "North by Northwestern". It was a series of stories about a life on the sea I couldn't even imagine. In Mark's books, stories don't always follow in time sequence. But in the end, the reader realizes that all of the stories have been placed on the literary canvas in such a way that something complex and beautifully crafted emerges. So it is with "The Man Who Quit Money". Some of the stories let us get to know Daniel. Others serve to explain what Daniel talks about in his blog. One even outlines the thoughtful philosophy of the Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin for us non-philosophers. In the end, you have about as good a painting of my remarkable friend as you can possibly get without sitting down with him personally and getting to know him.My life has been changed by Daniel. But if I said I was in debt to him, that would contradict his values. I'm not in debt because Daniel has given to me freely, and I have accepted freely. I don't believe true friends are ever in debt to each other. Money is about debt and obligation, entitlement and anxiety. Somehow Daniel's life has transcended that, and artfully, Mark Sundeen has given all of us insight into that transcendence while gently joining us in evaluating the compromises by which many of us fulfill our own goals.