Some well-known names are absent from the best books of 2004, pacing a list of disappoints from the year.

John Updike's novel "Villages" failed to enhance his reputation, earned 40 years ago but slipping in the last 10 years or so.

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The story of a computer programmer who surfs the local lovelies and destroys his marriage was the same old stuff.

Updike also sought to chronicle the changes in social and sexual mores through the decades but without originality.

A lot was expected from the posthumous novel "Nothing Lost" by John Gregory Dunne, and the book delivered some strong scenes.

Its failing was its characters, a collection of one-dimensional people who talked a good game but who confused lust with true passion.

E.L. Doctorow switched from novels to short stories in "Sweetland Stories," losing depth and complexity in the process.

He peopled his landscape with losers who, but for one gothic tale, managed to do practically nothing.

The most-heralded book of the year, "I Am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe, was a mechanical wonder of gizmos, purple prose and bacchanals all disguising a superficial social commentary of old-fashioned puritanism.

Another vapid effort masquerading as social commentary was the aimless ramblings of David Brooks, who reached new heights of superficiality with his nonfiction nonsense, "On Paradise Drive."

Along with his lightweight remarks as a TV talking head, his book left no impact.