The Guardians The New Yorker, Issue of 2001-03-26 故事从Lee的幼年讲起，说他如何在他的四个Guardians的监护下，长大成人。这四个Guardians，是他的父亲、母亲、祖父、祖母。他长大以后，他的Guardians一个一个地去世。“They contrived to stay alive until he was safely away at college and beyond. …… They died, at tactfully spaced-out intervals, in the order of their births.” 这篇小说不是以故事取胜，事实上，它没有什么一以贯之的情节，没有跌宕起伏的悬念，没有冲突，也没有结局。 但如果要说到小说的技巧，特别是“Show, not Tell”的原则，Updike的这篇小说几乎可以是范文。它充满了丰富的细节，样样都是具体，一静一动都在你的眼前。 他描写Lee的祖父因为Lee的母亲忍受不了烟味，只好在室外抽烟： ……so he smoked outdoors, sitting in a lawn chair, or standing under a tree in a sweater, one elbow cupped in the hand of an arm, surveying the world around him, a world on which his grip had faltered. ……The old man would tilt his head as if to catch a bird's last chirpings; his glowing cigar end would somersault as he tossed it into the peonies. Updike的叙述也很精致： ……he felt the four adults as sides of a perfect square, with a diagonal from each corner to a central point. He was that point, protected on all sides, loved from every direction. 他描写到母亲把理发当作一件天大的事情： Of the three barbers in the shop, only Jake, the Roosevelt-hater, could cut Lee's hair to her satisfaction. When he pointed out to her that Jake's political opinions were the opposite of theirs, she said yes, but he was an artist. 这里不但反映出穷人的社会、政治倾向，亦顺畅地把主题引入art，而Lee和母亲的蜡笔画是他们生活中的一个主题。当然，她对理发的重视也不言而喻了。 虽然描述了那么多的细节，文字依然很轻，这是这篇小说的好处。