Deborah Eisenberg, Some Other, Better Otto

There's a better Otto possible and he knows it.

Deborah Eisenberg’s “Some Other, Better Otto” opens with Otto, a middle-aged lawyer, bemoaning the fact that he accepted an invitation from his sister, Corrine, for Thanksgiving dinner. Why did I agree to any of this,” he complains to William, his significant other and the emotional yin to his yang. William, ever the voice of reason, replies, “I mean, this is what we do.”  In other words, this is life. Get on with it. Big picture stuff right from the start. And it is life, could be our life. We feel that again and again throughout the story. Otto could be our uncle, brother, father.

It’s the cynical, self-deprecating voice of Otto that narrates the story, serves as the fulcrum to this extended family. There’s a better Otto possible and he knows it. Still, much as he’d like, he can’t bring himself to be that person. On the surface, he seems to have everything: a happy relationship, financial security, work he loves, friends. But he’s not happy. More to the point, he won’t allow himself to be happy. He complains continuously, like it’s part of his DNA. The one person he treats with care is Sharon, his mentally ill sister. Sharon, exquisitely portrayed in whispery, beautiful prose was, by all accounts, brilliant before succumbing to schizophrenia. The entire family walks on eggshells around her. If she doesn’t come to Thanksgiving dinner, they will be both relieved and disappointed.

When Otto presses her to come, she reveals how difficult it is to be in her position. “Otto, I can’t. I just can’t. I don’t want to sit there being an exhibit of robust good health, or non-contaminatingness, or the triumph of the human spirit, or whatever it is that Corinne needs me to illustrate. Just tell them everything is okay.”

“Some Other, Better Otto” is a long, slow ride through a dystopian theme park. We take this ride happily. It’s fun. It’s funny. It's heartbreaking. It’s real. By the end we feel part of this family, yet relieved, somehow, that we’re not.

Deborah Eisenberg has written five collections of short fiction, the latest of which is Your Duck Is My Duck. (February 2025) She is a professor of writing at Columbia University.[4]

“Some Other, Better Otto,” first appeared in the 2004 Best American Short Stories anthology. It has also appeared in New American Stories edited by Ben Marcus (2015).