Mary Lou Cheatham’s Best-Loved Novel “The Dream Bucket” - A Memorable Trip to the Country Life of Early Twentieth-Century Mississippi

With her best-loved novel, “The Dream Bucket,” Mary Lou Cheatham, a multi-published author, offers readers a journey into the world of the rural South at the beginning of the twentieth century. Drawing inspiration from her youth on a small farm, the emotions of losing the family home in a fire, and from the stories her parents told her about growing up, Mary Lou paints a picture of a nostalgic time when cars were new inventions, children roamed over the farm, people cooked almost all their food from scratch, and neighbors shared in one another’s misfortunes. Such a life exists only in books such as this one.

As the story opens, ten-year-old Trudy loves Papa more than anybody else until he slaps Zoe, her mother. Trudy is so angry at him she wishes he’d die. After he accidentally sets fire to the family mansion and perishes in the hot smoke, she spirals into a state of bewilderment. The guilt of experiencing an event she’d thought of while she was angry overwhelms her.

Before Trudy’s father, William, dies, he tells Zoe: “Stay out of my financial affairs. Don’t I provide well for you and the children?”

She wants to know where he keeps his money in case his life should end. When her greatest dread comes true and the undertakers haul his body away in a wagon, she is devastated. How will she survive as a widow? For a few hours, Zoe loses her mind.

The family has nowhere to call home except a sharecropper’s shack, which has stood unoccupied for years, except by rats and snakes. After they clean the shack and move in, Trudy, her brother, and her mother receive a dose of humility blended with hope for a brighter future.

Trudy deals with grief but doesn’t lose her mischievous childlike ways. In the daytime she works hard on the farm, although she plays pranks on her brother. At night she screams from realistic dreams about her father. Zoe denies her attraction to a man who has been a family friend for years. She must discover whether loving again is worth the price.The book depicts Trudy’s coming of age, as she learns to accept her imperfections as well as those in the people she loves.

Unanticipated twists make “The Dream Bucket” hard to put down. Kind and caring characters, such as Jake, the mercantile owner, and Mr. Sam, an attentive neighbor, warm readers’ hearts. The family encounters two villains, so despicable the readers rejoice when they face hardships. Supernatural elements bolster the family’s spiritual journey.

In addition to countless favorable reviews, “The Dream Bucket” received an award from Inspirational Writers Alive. Amazon ranked it as a best seller in its category, and Audio Creation Exchange awarded the producer of the audiobook a stipend. Although the book is the third in the Covington Chronicles, it takes its place as an independent story. Readers continue to select “The Dream Bucket” as a must read among Mary Lou Cheatham’s novels.

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Mary Lou Cheatham

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Mary Lou Cheatham

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