Missiles and Miscalculation February 9, 2020 Jed Lea-Henry There is plenty in this book, and plenty to like. The imagery of American pilots over North Korean skies recalling “the helpless feeling of watching the huge missiles powering up into space carrying huge nuclear weapons that the pilots knew were headed toward the United States” is hauntingly well done (even if the repeated use of the word ‘huge’ sticks in the throat). But more than anything, this is bold. It reaches for something difficult, and succeeds, and fails, in just the ways you might expect. For this, Jeffery Lewis both seems to know the limitations of his project, and then at times completely forgets what that project actually is. The personal 'testimony' of survivors is a good piece of literary craft, however it doesn’t blend as it should with the cold technical explanations throughout. And Lewis's attempts to slow-play his readers often doesn’t catch, as he tries to retroactively hint at what he has already told us is coming. Yet, in a strange way it all kind of works. The clumsy moments and the jagged edges, don’t take away too much from what this actually is – a missile expert talking us through an incredibly dangerous scenario. And the worst thing that can be said about this scenario, is also the best thing that can be said about this book – it is plausible.