One of teh finest chapters ever written - in James Agee's A Death in the Family

James Agee gives us the essential plot element in the title: A Death in the Family (1957). And near the outset of the novel the Jay gets a call from his somewhat incompetent brother than their father is on death's doorstep; Jay hurries out on a long drive in poor conditions (it's 1915, the roads are bad and cars are primitive) to see about and attend to his father. But wait: Agee has fooled us w/ a head fake! It turns out that Jay's father really isn't so ill, his brother had over-reacted - and he sets off back for home. Then, oddly, another call in the middle of the night - this time telling Jay's wife, Mary, that her husband has been in a serious accident and to send one of the "menfolk" in her family to come to the scene. So there can be no doubt in our mid that this one is in fact the "death in the family." Agee then gives us truly one of the greatest chapters in a novel I've ever read, as Mary and her sister - while the "menfolk" are heading out to the blacksmith shop where Jay had his "accident" - hope for the best and prepare for the worst: It's possible that he's just injured and may have to come home for recovery, so Mary prepares a first-floor bedroom. But she and her sister go through hours of the agony of waiting for word (communications were primitive in 1915 compared w/ today of course); the chapter almost seems as if it's in "real time," as if it takes us hours to read the chapter, which of course is just an illusion. But I've never read a chapter that so perfectly captures the agony of anticipation - the interior struggle of Mary, a devout Christian who is wrestling w/ her faith, her sister trying to be practical and helpful but feeling in the way, her obtrusive if well-meaning parents - and of course the two children asleep through the whole episode - and we're waiting to see how the death effects them (son Rufus is the central character in the novel, most likely based on Agee's own childhood?).