A very fine nod to Eric Bosse’s “Magnificent Mistakes” from Jim Ruland in the San Diego City Beat: Bosse’s debut collection alternates between traditional short stories and shorter works of flash fiction, setting up a hard-hitting series of one-two combinations. Writing in the realist mode, he puts his characters in situations where they’re forced to confront their flaws; the degree to which they’re willing to accept that these shortcoming make them who they are determines their capacity to find what they’re searching for. Make no mistake, these are high-stakes fictions, but what I find most admirable is the way Bosse finishes: He really knows how to stick the ending. I felt each story’s finality all the way down to my bones.
