The Last Time I Died

November 4, 2013
Christian Franco, the creative and charismatic protagonist of Nelms’s debut novel, is like an indefatigable class clown, darkly funny and constantly stirring the pot. But underneath the arch exterior, he’s a mess: self-destructive at the law firm where he works and tormented in the aftermath of a painful divorce, he suffers also under the burden of a traumatic childhood that decades of therapy have done little to ameliorate. Every night brings a new round of hard drinking. The reader first encounters Christian after a suicide attempt (and not his first). He is a maximally unreliable first-person narrator, his situation exacerbated by his innate sense of mischief and his contrary nature. The story is told in short, punchy chapters, very much following the erratic path of Christian’s psyche. Often, the text consists of a parade of vivid images, coming at the reader in a vertical series like free verse: “Waiting in line for my coffee. Sitting on hold. Biking by the river. Waking up in a stranger’s bed.” Flashbacks make up a large portion of the story, filling in the puzzle pieces of Christian’s past by tantalizing increments. The ultimate reveals may veer into the melodramatic, but Christian is a relatable modern man and Nelms’s crackling prose moves like lightning.

November 15, 2013
Nelms debuts with a dark psychological drama tracing Christian Franco's spiral into madness. Christian's the son of a New York cop and a homemaker, strictly middle-class borough folk. Then Christian's father kills his mother. Despite sloppy foster care and sexual abuse, Christian won't be denied, and so it's law school honors and the fast track at a prestigious law firm. There's money, major partner mentoring and then marriage to beautiful, irresistible Lisa. Life's perfect, except that Christian's a tightened-down pressure cooker fueled by rage and suppressed memories of his mother's murder. Lisa leaves. Christian self-medicates with alcohol and drugs, neglects work and instigates fights: "There was nothing like a good beat down to take the edge off." Soon, he's out of second chances, fired after the night he's beaten almost to death and narrowly revived. Unconscious, Christian experienced what he calls "The White...bright and clean and perfect...yet soothing and comfortable," with flashes of suppressed childhood traumas on display. After Christian awakens, he sketches memories in manic episodes--dozens of drawings. Christian's rage-fueled quest to know the truth of his childhood comes in strobe-light snapshot chapters, flashes of manic action much like Chuck Palahniuk's transgressional narratives. Christian becomes obsessed with dying, confronting "The White" and then being revived again. Christian soon meets Dr. Cordoba, defrocked physician/researcher working part time treating injured fighting dogs. Christian persuades her to kill and then revive him, which she does in her hidden laboratory, but the cost she exacts is demented. Nelms writes in first person, with sardonic, distanced second-person chapters scattered about, with an intensity and focus that will keep the reader wondering. Christian--"I am an amorphous id in jeans and a tee shirt moving quickly through structures of glass and marble with a single focus"--isn't a sympathetic character, but he's the engine of the demented narrative. Allegories and symbolism--Christian dying, being revived--perhaps should be taken as ironic in this postmodern breakdown saga.

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Starred review from December 1, 2013
Christian Franco knows there's something wrong with his memory. That's what happens when your dad murdered your mom, and you spend years bouncing around the foster-care system. Nine years of repressed childhood memories have to come back eventually, right? The problem is, Christian is only able to access old memories when he's on the verge of consciousness. Alternately thrilled and horrified by his new memories, he turns to ever more drastic measures to leave his fully conscious mind behind. From picking bar fights to injecting experimental drugs, Christian finds that his willingness to kill himself ultimately allows him to fully understand his troubled childhood. Nelms has created a thrill ride in this fast-paced story focused on the conflict between the pain of repression and the pain of knowledge. Fans of the TV show Dexter, the film Memento, and the novels of DBC Pierre will appreciate the brutal honesty of Christian's narration, spliced with flashbacks to happier times and occasional observations from an omniscient third party. One of the most compelling first novels in recent memory, The Last Time I Died is chilling, cinematic, and unapologetically brash, a heady mixture of all-consuming desire and mortality.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)