yep.

...Fountain describes 1960s Southern hairdos as looking like 'heavily shellacked constructions of meringue', and writes of 'that ripe, combustible blend of sentimentality and viciousness so vital to the traditions of the moneyed Southern male'.

- From Christopher Taylor's review of Ben Fountain's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk in the 2 August 2012  edition of the LRB.

I think that the line "combustible blend of sentimentality and viciousness so vital to the traditions of the moneyed Southern male" is about as perfectly and succinctly accurate as one can be when considering that social disease.