It was bound to happen: the Left are spilling their blue hair dye over Jessica Harper Is Not Woke, “the first anti-woke novel” by new author Jessica Harper. But don’t judge this book by its cover. The hilarious and heartfelt story takes a frankly mainstream view as it satirizes the more destructive aspects of wokeism.
It all starts when Jessica Harper, a 38-year-old conservative wife and mom from Georgia, outs herself as “not woke” at a dinner party.
She’s had about all she can take of wokeness culture — white guilt, pronouns, microaggressions, and she’s probably seen one too many woke TV commercials — and at last she’s finally cracked.
Jessica’s impulsive and ill-advised admission sets off a disastrous (and frequently hilarious) chain of events — including a laugh-out-loud encounter at a lefty book store and a humiliating appearance on a shock jock’s radio show — that causes her to lose friends, her job, and (nearly) her sanity.
At the heart of this story is the question: should Jessica back down to the woke mob or stand up to them and risk losing everything?
A book for the rest of us?
If you are one of the many who have grown weary of radical activism and political correctness turned up to 11, then this book is for you.
Polarizing title aside — and yes, “Jessica Harper Is Not Woke” is subtle as a sledgehammer — the book is perhaps less divisive than it sounds.
The positions Harper takes on topics such as slavery, gender identity, and the huge diversity push among HR managers are decidedly mainstream — and, as the story is satire, the humor is tongue in cheek. For example, titles at the lefty book store include 300 Poems by Refugees About Rain and Why I Am No Longer Talking To White People About The Best Way To Season Halibut.
(An equal-opportunity satirist, Harper takes shots at conspiracy theorists and religious-right fanatics as well.)
As I read this novel, I couldn’t help but notice how closely Jessica’s frustrations echo the complaints I hear daily from Cranky blog readers. When Brig Daniels, the dinner party host, asks Jessica what it is about “woke” that bothers her, she replies:
“The amount of it . . . It’s everywhere and everything. I can barely open my inbox at work for all the emails about diversity courses and values and inclusivity and whatever new phrase it is this month.
“Every time I turn on Netflix I get this propaganda pushed down my throat. When did we start accepting that any drama we watch will have a social message? What happened to drama just being entertainment? And people being fired for giving the most anodyne opinions at work.”
These complaints sound pretty fair to me, and here at The Cranky Creative, they are reflected in the popularity of blog posts such as Let’s talk about forced diversity in TV commercials and This is why companies are pushing LGBTQ+.
Trigger warning
Even as I type, the Miserable PC Brigade are review-bombing this book on Amazon. And boy, does this expose their hypocrisy. These people have the entire weight of the world’s woke media behind them — from music, TV and movies to advertising and the so-called “news” — and yet, they feel they must attack, ridicule, cancel and destroy anything that opposes The Agenda.
(Outside of the one Verified Purchase, I doubt the low-scorers have even read the book. And even that is suspect. What’s a few bucks to these zealots to leave a low-effort, one-star review?)
“You can be a good person without being an idiot.”
— Author Jessica Harper
Try as some might to dismiss the book as a right-wing fever dream written by an unhinged MAGA mom, Harper is no ideologue.
As she says on her blog:
“I was brought up in a fair-minded, non-racist family to respect all (good) people but I fiercely oppose the damaging campaigns by ‘woke’ activists and the media.
“I believe we must separate legitimate issues of justice and equality from the strange ideas of the hard left. We can be good people without being ‘woke’ and recanting the great things about Western culture and history.”
Exactly. While the far Left is doing its best to paint moderate and conservative Americans as wrong-thinking bigots, -ists, and -phobes, the reality is it’s the wokeys who are trying to force their radical ideas on everyone else through the tyranny of political correctness.
And now, back to the story
Despite the book’s generally sunny outlook, there are dark moments where Jessica and her family must face the consequences of not being woke. These challenges should be familiar to everyone in our current age of identity politics and cancel culture, and they propel the narrative forward.
The surprisingly fast-paced and suspenseful story hurtles to a white-knuckle climax that left me in a state of catharsis — not only for the satisfying conclusion, but also for the fact that, at last, someone has pushed back against progressive hypersensitivity in defense of traditional values.
Notably, several chapters begin with real-world news snippets and short quotes that attempt to explain what wokeism is and highlight examples of woke overreach — from the overrepresentation of women and nonwhites in contemporary fiction to the Coca-Cola Company telling its employees to be “less white.” These examples help to contextualize the story and provide readers with a deeper understanding of the issues we confront.
Jessica Harper Is Not Woke: The Cranky Creative verdict
I enthusiastically recommend Jessica Harper Is Not Woke to anyone who could use a fun and refreshing respite from the woke irrationality that has infected our culture. If you are looking for a story that will make you think, laugh, and feel a little hope for the world in which we now live, then you would do well to add this to your library.
The far Left won’t like it, but we all know they don’t have a sense of humor anyway.
Jessica Harper Is Not Woke is out now in paperback and Kindle format.
Visit the author’s blog.
The second Jessica Harper book, Panic On The Fourth Of July, is due to be published in spring 2024.
See all Cranky ad reviews | Go back to blog home page | Subscribe for free
I really appreciated your review–and your honest, unashamed comments about critiquing the illogic of the left. It must be wearing for them to wield such power with so little consideration for everyone. Thanks for being willing to uphold what we as a country are supposed to be about–seeing the possibilities in everyone. Not cranky, but definitely creative.
Thank you, daylerogers! I love this comment. I shared it with my wife as soon as it came in. I’m sorry for the delay in replying back to you, but I’ve been busy building a foundation for My Life After Marketing and wasn’t able to write you until now.
In any case, you are right. It’s not easy sticking your neck out to push back against militant wokeism and the neverending attacks on mainstream (well, mainstream until recently) values. But we need to do this or we will be swamped by the opposition who has made it their mission to destroy Western culture as we know it.
Love all your comments. Maybe this book will change some minds. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.
Thanks, Donna. You’re right, it’s all about being open to different ideas.
I’m going to add this to my summer reading list. Thanks for the recommendation. 📖
You’re welcome, Maryann. Jessica will be happy to hear it, too!
I’m left, but more center-left than far left. Treat everyone with kindness and fairly, but don’t apologize for being a straight white male, as contrary to our portrayal by my far left friends we are not the enemy. I applaud this book.
And I applaud your post. Thank you so much for your comment.
I haven’t owned a tv for more than 30 years. It wasn’t hard to give up because I felt what was being offered for viewing was an insult to any intelligent person. There are a few old shows that I do enjoy on dvd…my favorite being Route 66.
Never in a million years would the elite controllers allow a show like that on tv these days. Two smart, good-looking masculine white guys…super-cool (for their era) driving around the country offering help and support to those they meet. And almost every program had a moral lesson. We (in the conspiracy world) know that tv was introduced for social programming, and to ultimately destroy the moral fiber of America. So why were the tv shows of the fifties and early sixties constantly dispersing moral guidence? I read a blog post this week that postulated that the idea was to “hook” the average American family into buying an idiot box. When saturation point had reached 80 plus percent, that’s when they started to churn out the garbage programming.
It really does seem that much of today’s media is made to subvert our culture, doesn’t it? Look around, see who’s being canceled. See what’s being promoted in its place. Hmm. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this is another conspiracy theory coming true before our very eyes.