BEHIND THE DOOR

A jewelry maker and interior designer’s account of an unexpected career path that led her to working at a hotel for the down and out.

When Price took a three-day gig redesigning rooms at the Cecil Hotel, she never dreamed it would lead to a 10-year association with what some called the deadliest, most haunted building in Los Angeles. Numerous suicides and unexplained deaths—like that of Elisa Lam, a young woman who died in the hotel water tank—had taken place there, and serial killer Richard Ramirez had once been a patron. In addition to accommodating travelers and other transients, the Cecil also served as a long-term residence for drug dealers and addicts as well as mentally ill people like the Vietnam veteran who never cleaned his room and the woman who never went outside. Price links the fascination she developed for the Cecil—its grand exterior and its foul-smelling, threadbare interiors—with a curiosity born out of a sheltered childhood and “naïve” beliefs that “everyone is created equal.” Her interactions with residents and the illegal immigrants who worked at the hotel quickly educated her in the realities of poverty and social injustice. Price climbed the ranks to become the Cecil’s ever enthusiastic general manager. Yet from this pinnacle, she witnessed not only the downfall of the Cecil’s director of operations, but also the collapse of projects meant to fund a hotel always operating “just above the red.” Even after her job ended, problems—including a disparaging Netflix documentary about the hotel—still dogged Price, for whom the Cecil remained a “beautiful disaster” that “change[d] [her] forever.” Price’s journey from innocence to worldliness is appealing, but the narrative anecdotes—especially those related to the Cecil—sometimes seem haphazardly connected, while character portraits occasionally come across as underdeveloped. These issues transform an otherwise promising narrative into a less-than-compelling reading experience.

A heartfelt but flawed memoir.