Overview

What Remains is an intense first-person road book, travel in the extreme - old man, old motorcycle, three thousand miles of old broken roads. Mountains and deserts and small town America, three hundred potholed miles at a time. Out of the way characters in the empty places where they hack out an existence. The grit and grace it takes to get by, the natural beauty that revives the old guy's affection for people as they are. What it takes to get old too, sunburn and ache at the end of the day, nothing left but the attention he brings to himself and the folks having dinner at the next table. The hard-won clarity that comes with solitude and exhaustion, the glacial attrition of age and decline - body, brainpan, capacity to dream. What Remains is a present tense account of an old man's quest out beyond the mate seeking and resume building and family raising that dominate the mid-section of life. How to navigate loss and diminishment, the dark certainty of death? It is a journey that reignites a sense of adventure about aging itself, the ingredients of a rich and passionate life. All this and that distracting crash in Death Valley.

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9781737699514

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Do we ever stop learning to live? With his classroom the open road, John Otterbacher takes seriously Rilke's injunction: 'Let everything happen to you.' The road is an irresistible invitation to discover what's next - and who he is. Channeling Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a healthy dose of Kerouac, Otterbacher embarks on a great American journey of self-examination and self-discovery. Searingly self-aware, he is driven by curiosity, by a restless longing that age can't quench. He holds nothing back, racing ahead where others fear to tread, on a trip that is pastoral one moment and harrowing the next. We're along for a glorious ride toward a sun always setting - and always rising again, hurtling down blue highways - towards what? Otterbacher doesn't know. Or does he? That's the mystery in this spare and daring travelogue of the heart. Hank Meijers author of Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century John Otterbacher's What Remains beautifully blends a later-life adventure across an often overlooked America with brutally honest self-evaluation. His erudite tangle with age, declining abilities, and increasing vulnerabilities while maintaining a vibrant desire to live fully is both entertaining and an essential guide to everyone. In his eclectic view as a psychologist, survivor, legislator, family man and adventurer, Otterbacher delivers humor, dramatic scenery, and provocative insights into both his inner and outward journey down a road rarely traveled but deeply rooted in our shared humanity. Steven Callahan, author of bestselling survival memoir, Adrift John Otterbacher has written a thoroughly engaging narrative of late-life excursion down back roads and through small towns, far from our marvel coasts, with ruminations on a life fully lived and the vagaries of everyday America, out there in the middle of it. An often gripping ride. Daniel Gerber, author of Particles Life's essential journey is in search of ourselves. In What Remains, John Otterbacher continues this lifelong pursuit, and beckons his readers to come along for another remarkable ride. Thomas Lynch, author of Bone Rosary and The Depositions This old man on a motorcycle is a mystic reminding us of our connection to each other and all of life. It's a great ride. I encourage you to take it. Barry Johnson, PhD, author of Polarity Management, And John Otterbacher invites the reader along for an unforgettable, transformative journey through time, space, memory, and into the future. The sense of openness and curiosity with which this writer encounters everything-from the most sublime to the most painful-offers the reader a model of generosity and acceptance. The world and its inhabitants, after reading What Remains, appear more familiar and also more extraordinary. As with every remarkable journey, one is reluctant to return to the mundane; however, this memoir changes the reader who accepts the invitation to share the road trip. The place to which it returns us is more meaningful than it was, and, having seen through the eyes of this great writer while turning these pages, we have been taught to see and appreciate all we may have otherwise overlooked. Laura Kasischke

Author Information

When John Otterbacher talks about living out beyond your fears, he is speaking from experience. He has lived a life of extension and adventure; years in a monastery, several motorcycle tours of American, a doctorate in clinical psychology, an eight-year stint as a state representative and senator, a solo sail across the Atlantic. The heart attacks could have sidelined him, the grim prognosis. Instead of retiring to The couch, John spent a year rebuilding his health and the family sailboat, Grace. Then he and Barbara took their two youngest children on a six-year, 30,000 family odyssey that included 4 more Atlantic crossings. Their story, chronicled in his book, Sailing Grace, has been honored as Best New Non-fiction Book by the National Indie Excellence Awards and as a finalist for Best Book Award by USA Book News. John is a sought-after speaker on the role of attitude in resilience. He divides his time between consulting with clients and writing, most recently completing a travel memoir entitled What Remains.

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