One of us and Home, sweet home

These are two short stories which, as is customary for Fante, are set within the milieu of the typical Italian family.
In the first story, a telegram arrives announcing the death of a cousin, a boy who had been a childhood playmate of Mike, one of the family’s many brothers.
A deeply humorous scene unfolds: while the mother weeps for the grief of her sister, who has lost a son, the boys fight over the telegram to the point of tearing it to pieces, thereby opening a dispute over how the cousin died and when the funeral will be held.
The scene shifts to the funeral, attended by the mother, Mike, and his younger brother, the narrator.
What strikes the boys is that the uncle does not weep for the death of his son, whereas all the relatives, particularly the women, unleash a flurry of wailing and shrieks.
Mike, in particular, is afraid to approach his uncle, fearing that his resemblance to the dead cousin might make him the target of resentment.
Yet it is precisely the sight of Mike—of what his own son might have been—that breaches the solitude of grief and moves the uncle to tears:

.
In the second story, Jimmy returns to his parents' home, which he had left after a stormy quarrel with his father.
Once again, the portrait of a classic Italian family emerges: the mother has prepared a fine dinner with the sweets Jimmy loves, hoping that all will go well, without fights or arguments; the father pretends to have forgotten, unemployed, heading off to the tavern after dinner as he does every evening; the siblings greet their older brother enthusiastically, yet inevitably settle back into the everyday routine from which Jimmy now feels alienated.
The conclusion cannot be otherwise:

.
The stories, particularly the first, are very fine.
The style is quintessentially Fante’s: elegant, tender, and effortlessly fluid.