Woman No. 17 captures perfectly the unique quirkiness of California. A young artist, S, decides to create a performance piece by trying to relive the youth of her mother, with whom she has a rough and difficult relationship. To recreate her mother's youth, she becomes a nanny to the young son of Lady, who was once the subject of a famous photographer's art. The ideas of subject and object as well as what is fair game to do to someone else in the name of art and the lingering effects that objectification can cause. Recommended for fans of Christine Sneed's Little Known Facts.

Lepucki is a great writer. I can't say I liked the characters in this novel or their choices, but they were so well-drawn that they seemed real in a concrete, physical sense.