So I am reading Danielle Steele!

I wanted to learn a bit about women’s fiction. It is a genre that has always intrigued me with its commercial viability and its loyal fan base. I figured I would purchase and analyze a successful known quantity to accomplish this. I chose Danielle Steele because she is arguably one of the most prominent names in women’s fiction, big enough that she was the first name to pop into my brain. One novel being as good as another for my experiment I went for her most recent work. It seemed like a good concept, “Big Girl” is ostensibly about a protagonist with a regular figure. When I say regular here I mean woman’s size 10-14 fluctuating between the two during the story. I have not finished it yet but have already questioned things after chapter 3 enough that I went  looking for other opinions. Apparently I have stumbled on Danielle Steele’s personal “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. The book is proclaimed as poorly written and insulting to women because of misogynistic  and weight biased overtones. I will of course follow up with further review because I will be finishing the book if for nothing else but perverse curiosity at how an icon of writing fails miserably. I know this isn’t my acquaintances normal literary purview but does anyone else know about this debacle and have an opinion?