Some might say, "Well, duh."

Patti Thorn and Marty Meitus at the Rocky Mountain News discover bestselling women novelists of the 1970s are losing their touch as they sift through new books by Colleen McCullough, Belva Plain, and Barbara Taylor Bradford. (Although, in all fairness, I should point out that my experience to this triumvirate is limited to the first couple chapters of The Thorn Birds shortly after the miniseries first aired. When it comes to multigenerational family sagas, my tastes were formed by Frank Herbert, I'm afraid.)