Chapter 6: The Renovation of the Excelsior Motel Room

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The narrator wakes late in her Monrovia motel, buys a 1920s salmon-colored bedspread for $200 after haggling, and decides to stay an extra day. She unpacks and steams her feminine clothes. Spotting a Hertz near the motel, she feels uneasy but continues exploring. She hires Claire, the wife of Davey (the man she saw three times earlier), to redecorate the room for $20,000. Over three days, Claire installs a new carpet, wallpaper, bathtub, towels, and a memory-foam mattress from her own home. The narrator lies to her husband Harris, son Sam, and manager Liza, pretending to be en route to New York. She cancels plans and confides in her friend Jordi, who compares Davey’s appearances to a folktale troll. On the final day, Claire presents a transformed room—opulent with chintz drapes, great chairs, and a toaster oven. After paying, Claire leaves, and the narrator collapses on the floor, feeling depression loom.

Key Events

The narrator stays in bed late and pays for another night at the Excelsior Motel.
She buys a vintage 1920s bedspread for $200 after arguing with the antique mall vendor.
She unpacks and arranges her feminine outfits, steaming them.
She notices Hertz and Budget Rent-a-Car near the motel, evoking a strange feeling.
She hires Claire, the interior designer, after first mistaking her for the receptionist.
Claire measures the room, quotes $20,000, and begins work.
Skip, the motel manager, objects to the carpet installation but is placated.
Claire replaces the mattress with her own memory-foam one.
The narrator talks to Harris on the phone, lies about her neck not aching, and speaks to Sam.
She tells Jordi about staying in Monrovia and the three appearances of Davey.
The narrator cancels her New York plans and lies to friends, except Mary.
Claire installs Portuguese hexagon tiles that are three or four short.
Helen, the housekeeper, is told to use the narrator’s own towels; Claire reveals Helen was her uncle’s wife.
On the third day, Claire does quality control and reveals the finished room.
Claire films the narrator’s arrival and shows off the chintz drapes, great chairs, and toaster oven.
The narrator pays $20,000 via check and Claire leaves; the narrator sinks to the floor.

Character Development

The Narrator: She fully commits to her detour, investing time and money in transforming the motel room. She rationalizes her lies as part of a mysterious journey toward greatness. She shows self-awareness about her classism and her tendency to choose alternatives to what she truly wants. Her emotional vulnerability grows—she almost cries speaking to Sam and collapses after Claire departs.
Claire: Professional yet revealing a complex personal history (her aunt Helen cheated on her uncle). She manipulates power dynamics with Skip and Helen. Her own domestic arrangement (letting the narrator sleep in her marriage bed) suggests a permeable boundary between work and life.
Harris: Distant and unsuspecting, he accepts the narrator’s vague updates. The narrator imagines a future “Great Reveal” about their secrets, hinting at hidden tensions in their marriage.
Jordi: Acts as a confidante and mythological interpreter, linking Davey’s three appearances to a folktale troll. She reinforces the theme of supernatural or fated encounters.
Skip and Helen: Minor characters who illustrate the motel’s ordinary world and the narrator’s privileged intrusion. Helen’s warning (“you know all about it”) suggests shared female experience across ages.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Escapism and Transformation: The narrator’s renovation of the motel room symbolizes a desire to remake her life—a temporary, controlled transformation that mirrors her internal escape from marriage and motherhood.
Authenticity vs. Performance: She lies to everyone about her whereabouts, yet feels “more alive” and “buzzy.” The decorated room becomes a stage set, and her outfits are curated for a role.
The Number Three: Davey appears three times; Jordi mentions a folktale where a troll appears three times, suggesting fate or an enchanted loop. The incomplete tile pattern also evokes a near-miss of completion that might have opened another dimension.
Materialism and Class: The narrator spends $20,000 on a motel room she rents by the day, critiquing her own classism and the arbitrary value of objects (the bedspread argument, the “demi-towel”).
Midlife Crisis and Female Desire: The narrator rejects the term “midlife crisis” but imagines it as “a time of great questioning.” Her obsession with beauty, youth, and femininity (the vintage gowns, the pink bedspread, the young Claire) points to anxieties about aging.
Burden of Success: Her relationship with Liza—a financial and social obligation—reflects the hidden costs of achievement. The narrator carries Liza “on her back” as penance.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is a fulcrum for the novel. The narrator stops pretending to drive cross-country and instead invests fully in her detour, both financially and emotionally. The renovation becomes a metaphor for her internal reconstruction—an attempt to create a perfect, beautiful space before she must return to her real life. Claire’s work and the narrator’s lies expose the fragility of her marriage, her motherhood, and her artistic identity. The chapter deepens the mystery around Davey (the “troll”) and sets the stage for a confrontation with the consequences of her deception. It also introduces a darker undercurrent: the narrator’s depression after the room is finished suggests that material transformation cannot satisfy her deeper longing.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does the narrator decide to stay in Monrovia and redecorate the motel room, even though it means lying to her family? She feels suddenly unburdened by domestic duties and is drawn to following “beauty” without explanation. The act of redecorating gives her a sense of purpose and agency that her actual trip lacked. She rationalizes her lies as necessary to allow a new, more authentic self to emerge—a self that has “never been in charge before.” The mystery of the detour feels more important than the planned itinerary.

2. How does Claire’s renovation of the room reflect the narrator’s inner state? The room becomes a physical manifestation of the narrator’s desire for opulence, order, and sensuality. Claire’s materials—the gold-star tiles, the pink chintz, the tonka bean scent—create a dreamlike environment that the narrator cannot maintain. The incomplete tile pattern echoes the narrator’s own incomplete escape; as she says, a perfect pattern might have “opened up into other dimensions,” but the renovation remains a temporary illusion.

3. What is the significance of the narrator telling Jordi about seeing Davey three times? Jordi’s folktale interpretation frames Davey’s appearances as a magical recurrence, implying that the narrator’s path is predetermined or enchanted. The number three suggests a pattern that must be completed. By hiring Davey’s wife, Claire, the narrator enters into a strange triangulation that blurs professional, domestic, and intimate boundaries. The incident heightens the novel’s supernatural undertones and the narrator’s willingness to embrace irrationality.