Soil

January 26, 2015
Rural Mississippi is the setting for Kornegay’s beautifully written first novel, in which James “Jay” Mize invests all his family’s assets into an experiment in soil-free farming, a concept he believes will revolutionize the farming industry and save the world. He convinces his wife, Sandy, of its promise, and she enthusiastically works to make his project succeed. However, bad weather and a family tragedy handicap the endeavor, and Jay faces bankruptcy. In his dejection, he begins having paranoid fantasies, which compel Sandy to regretfully take their son, Jacob, back to town to live temporarily with her father. Jay and Sandy struggle with the breakup of their family and their difficult circumstances. When Jay finds a corpse on his land after an August rain, he believes it came to be there as part of a conspiracy to ruin him. As a result, he initiates a chain of tragic events affecting him, his family, and others. Penetrating characterizations and a well-charted story bode well for future work from this author. Agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic.

July 1, 2015

In Kornegay's debut, Jay Mize, an environmental scientist whose wife has left him, finds a corpse on his property while cleaning up after a flood. Instead of reporting it, he convinces himself he will be blamed and so disposes of the body in gruesome and time-consuming fashion on his ruined farm. Meanwhile, his wife is being pursued by a cocky, self-confident member of the local sheriff's department looking for a missing person. She's also dealing with a comatose father and a confused six-year-old son as Jay's thinking becomes more and more convoluted. Brian Hutchinson manages the Southern voices capably. VERDICT Recommended for those who enjoy dark comedy. ["Kornegay imbues his characters with depth and his story with suspense, but the real star of the book is the pungent and foreboding Mississippi earth itself. A promising debut from an assured new voice in Southern fiction": LJ 3/1/15 review of the S. & S. hc.]--Cheryl Youse, Moultrie, GA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.