A self-described "redneck who went to Yale," Sam MacDonald found himself rudely awakened in April 2000 by the slap of overdue bills hitting the dirty floor of his Baltimore apartment. But the credit card debt, back taxes and student loans weren't his only problems. Five years after his graduation, MacDonald weighed in at 340 pounds and had a prodigious drinking habit he cultivated nightly at his favorite neighborhood bar. Driven by a sudden need for change that was every bit as compulsive as the behavior that had created his lifestyle, MacDonald embarked on what he called the "urban hermit" plan to get himself out of debt. He decided to strip his life down to essentials: $8 per week and 800 calories per day. This ultra-Spartan regime cut out drinking, entertainment and all foods except lentils and tuna. MacDonald figured that after a month of this self-imposed torture, he'd save enough money to get an upper hand with his debt. Despite the deprivation and his hatred for lentils, he stuck to his plan for more than a year.In this quirky and vigorously unsentimental memoir, MacDonald describes his often-humorous adventures during this pivotal year. Staying away from the bar left him with plenty of time on his hands (it took only so long to cook and eat lentils), so he began writing more and pitching stories to national magazines as well as the small community newspaper he worked for. These ideas turned into assignments, first to Bosnia and then to a Rainbow Gathering festival in Montana (one of the book's hilarious highlights). MacDonald's social circle also widened to include a lovely--and understanding--woman whom he would later marry. Ultimately his urban hermit plan led him completely out of debt, into a different career and reshaped his body. By the end of it, he had lost 160 pounds.
This is by no means a diet or self-help book, which MacDonald takes great pains to emphasize (as he should; less hardy souls would quickly perish on this plan). Nor is it even positioned as a journey of self-discovery. MacDonald steers clear of self-realized aphorisms or feel-good homilies (in fact, one gets the distinct sense that, despite his success, he feels he still has a way to go on his own evolutionary path) in favor of straight storytelling, which he does extremely well. Fun, intriguing and sometimes a little scary, The Urban Hermit is a fresh--and welcome--addition to the memoir genre.--Debra Ginsberg
Shelf Talker: An entertaining and unusual memoir about a man's quest to get himself out of debt on $8 per week and 800 calories per day.