Nick Cave. Read "And The Ass Saw The Angel". Yes, he is Australian, not southern, but that book is very much in that tradition. It is often compared with Faulkner. A disturbing book.
Wikipedia describes the plot as:
And the Ass Saw the Angel tells the story of Euchrid Eucrow, a mute born to an abusive drunken mother and a father obsessed with cruel traps and animal torture. His father's dangerous traps, greasy and vile, just might maim or kill an unwary person. The ultimate outcast, scorned even among outsiders, in a valley of fanatically religious Ukulites, Euchrid bears his mother's beatings, his father's inturned indifference, and the hatred and loathing of an entire town. Euchrid's increasingly fractured mind teems with words and horrible angelic visions, narrated by his silent Southern drawl. (To wit, Cave phonetically renders the boy-narrator's "I" as "Ah.") Raised to inevitable madness in this world of inbreeding, moonshine, and fanaticism, Euchrid will exact his terrible vengeance on the people who have made his life one of nearly unrelenting pain.
Bill