The Last Time I Died

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. (Jan.)