THE CROWTHERS OF BANKDAM

I'm somewhat saturated with this all too familiar design of family saga, mill background, three generation pattern, and a lack of plot cohesion or deeply etched characterization. Almost in advance I can plot the curves:- the old man, who set the standards and ideals, the sons developing along diametrically opposite lines, one loyal to the mill, the other an opportunist and grafter; a third generation, with the tendencies more deeply defined -- and the swing back, after various ramifications, to another ""master"" in the grandson who bears the old man's name. Conventional story, against a Yorkshire background (dialect et al); recalls Bentley's Inheritance, and Taylor Caldwell's Dy of Death. without the substance or quality of either.