A Literarea Preview: 'No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy Seal: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden'

“No Easy Day” provides a first-person account of the Navy SEALs raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed last year in Pakistan. It also provides what might be the longest subhead in recent memory. Apparently, the publishers at Dutton/Penguin wanted to make sure that there was no mistaking that THIS IS THE BOOK ABOUT KILLING BIN LADEN. But I digress.

Writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen*, the book sheds new light on the killing of the leader Al Qaeda in a way that differs slightly from the official account.Owen claims to have been directly behind the lead commando on the night of the raid. He writes that as the commandos rushed up a narrow staircase, bin Laden opened the door at the top of the stairs and peered down on the SEALs, who then quickly shot him in the head. The SEALs entered the bedroom to find a mortally wounded bin Laden with two women crying over him. The author then claims that he and another commando shot bin Laden, who was “twitching and convulsing,” in the chest until he stopped moving. In the official version of the raid, it was stated that the SEALs shot and missed bin Laden in the staircase, then confronted him in his bedroom where he was killed by a shot to the chest and head.

This book will undoubtedly be a big seller this year because of its subject matter, the riveting storytelling and the focus on national defense and foreign policy that comes with a national election. So much so the publishing date has been moved up from the previous publishing date of Sept. 11. And thankfully so, in my opinion. There’s always something distasteful when that date is used to sell anything – even a book about thebrave SEALs who, according to President Obama, “exemplify the professionalism, patriotism and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country.” The book is already No. 1 on Amazon.com and B&N.com, and will be available Tuesday, Sept. 4 in finer bookstores everywhere and probably quite a few crappy ones as well.

*the author was rather quickly “outed” by military officials in the media as Matt Bissonnette.

About the Author

A Juilliard-trained writer, Kevin Kizer has fought against numerous world-champion writers during his career, besting the reigning middle weight writing champion in an exhibition bout in Helsinki in 1976. He also played a crucial role on the U.S. gold-medal winning writing team during the 1984 Pan-Am games, where he came off the bench in dramatic fashion to write the winning prepositional phrase just as time expired.