NY, Nov 20: Reviews have been mixed and the facts are in question, but the authorized biography of Pfc. Jessica Lynch will still claim a cherished position in the publishing industry: No. 1 on The New York Times' list of nonfiction best sellers.
"Clearly, people are responding to her story," said Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity at Alfred A. Knopf, which released I Am a Soldier, Too on Nov. 11, Veteran's Day, with a first printing of 500,000. Bogaards said Wednesday that first-week sales were around 50,000. Written by former New York Times reporter Rick Bragg, I Am a Soldier, Too will debut on the Times list that comes out on Sunday, November 30, reflecting the week the book went on sale. Lynch, a former supply clerk, sustained broken bones and other injuries when her 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23. Her rescue from an Iraqi hospital on April 1 made her an instant celebrity, although she has disputed some of the more dramatic elements.
Lynch has said she was disturbed that the military seemed to overdramatize her rescue by US troops and spread false stories that she went down shooting in an Iraqi ambush.

"That wasn't me. I wasn't about to take credit for something I didn't do," she told The Associated Press last week. "I'm not that person."
Meanwhile, hospital officials have disputed a key allegation of I Am a Soldier, Too - that she was raped while in captivity. Dr. Mahdi Khafazji, an orthopedic surgeon at Nasiriyah's main hospital who performed surgery on Lynch, has said he examined her extensively and would have detected signs of sexual assault.

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According to Bogaards, the book's claims are based on U.S. medical records.

Bragg took just three months to complete I Am a Soldier, Too and at least one critic believes he should have worked harder. Reviewing the book for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Scheer faulted Bragg for "his paltry investigation into the official mendacity that succeeded for a while in turning Lynch into a propaganda tool for a war that has been difficult to defend."

But USA Today's Bob Minzesheimer credited Bragg for producing as "good a book as could be written, given the circumstances and the rush to publish it." Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, resigned from The New York Times last spring after the newspaper suspended him over a story that carried his byline but was largely reported by a freelancer. He is the author of the popular memoir All Over But the Shoutin' and its follow up, Ava's Man.
Lynch says she received a $1 million advance, while Bragg got $500,000.
Bureau Report