I've looked at extracts and overviews but to be fair haven't evaluated the entire book. What I saw struck me as a bit TOO stereotyped and a bit strained. The actual South was a mix of ruffians and gentlefolk, and making black-and-white statements about the whole that are true is difficult if it is even possible. I'd like to think that in this mix, the rougher edges of redneck tended to get smoothed out while keeping the fun loving spirit.
“Gentlefolk?” The gentlefolk were not especially “genteel,” Thangs have changed a lot in fifty years, and it may not be as true as it used to be, but southern manners used to be better than northern ones, because, for one thing, it was a society of deference. IInsult a man and you were likely to pay a high price. Glen Campbell made a movie which was set in Arkansas, and his character was supposed to insult another, and they were trade insults for awhile. Campbell demurred: he told the director, a Californian, that if his character did say something like this to other character, that the replay would be a fist, not a retort. If you want to understand urban blacks hatred of being “dissed.” It started “back home.”