A review by finesilkflower
Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman

4.0

I truly enjoyed John Hodgman's second collection of stories; I like the way he played with theme of "secret rooms," or places you need a special sort of status to get into, relating it to his situation as TV actor with dwindling fame, getting used to having less access than he used to. The themes of privilege and mediocrity work well in this book, as he shows how unfair it is that he is granted more access than others. My favorite chapter is the last one, where he brings it back to small-town Maine, implicitly comparing the hollow sort of status you get by belonging to a club or being a celebrity or paying for a lot of Delta SkyMiles with the sort of status you get by belonging to community.

There's something frustrating about many of Hodgman's essays, a sense that there's some meaning lurking just beyond what was written; I'm still undecided if that's a problem or a strength.