Another woman-reader question

Y'all are going to end up hearing a lot about this book!

Check out these passages (all from the POV of a man watching his wife dress):
"...this big woman..."
"Big, and also overweight..."
"She dwarfed..."
"Her ever-increasing hips drooping..."
"...her ample self..."
"...big, overweight..."
"...the desire he'd felt ten years ago, when a not-so-expansive..."

Seven fat references in three pages. Only three pages! Actually, 2 1/2, as it's the beginning of a chapter (and yet another POV change). The fourth page has yet another dig - "Women not heavy with fat-laden stomachs and giant hips..."

I. Get. The. Point!

And furthermore, since the author has made it clear that we're talking about the rich, influential, and catty, I'm fully expecting to find out that this lardo is a whopping size 12.

Yes, we're supposed to be getting the idea this guy is losing interest in his wife. Yes, I'm overweight myself and probably oversensitive. But taken in conjunction with the author's already Cosmo-flavored prose, I can't help but consider this to be an unnecessary hammering of size, particularly egregious when it is written by a woman for other women to read. There are no two neurosis hammered harder into women than the notions that they aren't skinny enough and aren't good enough in bed. (Yeah, he starts complaining about *that*, too.)

Can someone name me some of the more class-conscious women's magazines? I so need to reference them in the review. Better Homes is too frumpy, and Vanity Fair actually has substance - I need a few names in the middle. People with pseudo-gravitas. Jane? Cosmopolitan? Rich Bitch Quarterly?

(I think I'm eventually going to start a contest - "name the RtE book review that was discussed in veiled terms on LJ, win a book!" But not necessarily that book, since it's the eye-sporking ones I always end up venting about.)

*inarticulate snarl of fury*

I've been reading over lunch. And now I really want to hunt this author down. Y'see, I've reached the point where the female character referred to in my previous post is finally seen by a neutral third party, a woman who has no baggage and no preconceptions about her. And how does this character look through fresh eyes?

"A heavyset woman..."
"The big woman turned..."
"...her pudgy hands out..."

By my count, this powerful, influential character (she leads the Club with an iron fist, constantly wins prizes, and is married to a younger, more handsome atavar of Alan Greenspan) has been called regal thrice, elaborately/expensively coiffed twice, pretty once, and fat 11 times.

I officially have a problem with this. This is the only character whose weight has been mentioned, and who, we know from the back cover, will be the murder victim. What did the author's notes say, "butcher the cow"?

And the pisser is, it's otherwise fairly decent. The setting is dead accurate and the bones of the plot - it's shaping up to be a political thriller disguised as a cozy - are connecting to a decent skeleton. I could have glossed over the gratuitous details like lip gloss color. But this goes well beyond my distaste for excess adjectives and into hot button territory.

Just so y'all know

It does not get better. Even compliments are tainted. ("The woman was captivating, her large size no drawback to her beauty...") There's a temporary lull when the poor woman is snuffed, but then it's right back to "the overweight wife" (a reporter) and "she gained tons of weight over the years" (a family friend). At this rate, I won't be surprised if there's a crack about the coffin being too heavy for the pallbearers to lift.