A good read where a woman is fat without this being the defining theme

[Mittens67]

Does such a thing exist?
All I have come across are either poor sad fat whoever loses weight and finds love/ success etc or poorly disguised lectures on body positivity.

I think you're reading the wrong books! But agree, weight shouldn't be a character in books

Can’t you just imagine the female protagonist however you want her to look? That’s the lovely thing about reading.

If a character's weight doesn't have plot/theme significance, perhaps the author doesn't need to specify it at all. Could you try to allow your mind's-eye visualisations of characters include larger ones?

As soon as weight is mentioned, there is always a risk that it starts to have thematic significance, even if the theme is only a patronising "Hey, this woman is larger but that's ok and she's cool anyway"

Elly Griffiths’ Dr Ruth Galloway series.

You can try but a significant number of books describe them in detail as being very much not fat.

Maybe you could write one, OP?

You're being odd.

very few books when weight isn't relative don't describe the size of the characters, so it's you deciding they're all slim.

from a definitely not slim reader.

Can I ask what sort of book you’re looking for. A fiction novel with a fat woman in it?is that what you wish? There are plenty of novels where the main character is plump or chubby I’m not aware of any about fat women as that is likely to cause offence,

Frangipani, by Celestine Hitiura Vaite.

I don't honestly remember whether the protagonist is described as fat, but in my mind she is. It is a wonderful book, regardless.

IIRC the protagonist of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is fat.

In the film, one of the two main characters in Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe is an overweight woman. Tz I

Since rake-thin women only became the ideal in twentieth century, you could read most nineteenth-century novels safe in the knowledge that the female characters pegged by the author as beautiful were likely to be sturdy, at least, in today's money (unless starving in a workhouse, or abandoned to tramp the country lanes by a Thomas Hardy fuck-up of a man)

Whoops - that's what happens when the cat jumps off your stomach while you're mumsnetting!

So I don't recall whether she loses weight in the film, but she certainly finds her self-confidence and any weightloss is the result and not the cause. I'm not familiar with the novel that was made into the film.

I was going to suggest these too!
Good series in any case

One of the spy characters in Mick Herron’s Slough House books (adapted on TV as Slow Horses) is described as barrel shaped, short, with a shaved head and massive anger issues. Though the actress in the series doesn’t match this description at all.

Also, I read a brilliant book years ago set in Scotland whose protagonist was a middle aged, overweight woman whom everyone totally underestimated because she looked like a typical benefit-claiming chav, but who was actually a female Sherlock holmes. Damn! I wish I could remember the name of that book!

Barbara Havers in the Inspector Lynley books by Elizabeth George is a large lady.

To be fair, she is more thinking she is fat than actually fat. She's between 12 and 13 stone which is by no means huge these days.

South Riding by Winifred Holtby. Two central characters, Mrs Beddows and Lydia Hubbard, are not slim. It's no more relevant to their characters and actions than their eye colour. Both very strong women.

Vera series by Ann Cleeves. Another strong woman.

The blacksmith by Jenny maxwell. Fab book, love it.

Another vote for the No1 ladies detective agency series.

This is odd...
Unfortunately, when a person is large, most people's eyes (and mind) are drawn to the fact they are large.
Attributes come afterwards....

Was going to say this.

I'm not sure I've read a book where the female has had her weight/size discussed tbh. How do you know the character you're reading about isn't a size 16 if it's not mentioned?

Agnes in Terry Pratchett's witches series is a big girl. Seismically big. There are well observed moments of this being a focal point, notably in Maskersde, but it's largely just a fact about her and it is her wit and problem solving skills and Compassion that we like.

I was thinking of her as well. And not just fat but really quite unattractive both physically & initially as a character.
Always felt Elizabeth George did a bit of a hatchet job on her especially given how attractive she made the other female characters.

I love Havers as she is. I hate the book in which she tries to become more attractive.