'Opal Mehta' Ripped Off Bookstore Shelves

The best-selling novel written by Harvard's Kaavya Viswanathan, 19, has been pulled by her publisher, Little, Brown and Co., amidst the rumors of her borrowing a large number of passages from another novel.

Kaavya Viswanathan hit it big when she was still in high school. She signed a 2-book deal worth $500,000, and the first book she would manage to create would be How Opal Metha Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got A Life. However, it would come to light only weeks after the first printing of 100,000 copies and after favorable reviews and press, that Opal Metha borrowed heavily from one of Kaanya's favorite authors, Megan McCafferty.

McCafferty's publisher, the Crown Publishing Group, has claimed that Kaavya's Opal Metha possesses at least 40 passages that "contain identical language and/or common scene or dialogue structure," according to Forbes. The Crown Publishing Group had accused of Viswanathan of "literary identity theft", and based on that, had demanded that Little, Brown and Co. remove all unsold copies of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.

Despite their initial rejections, Little, Brown and Co. have agreed to the demands. CBS News published a statement from Crown Publishing Company in response to the new that Little, Brown and Co. had halted sales of Viswanathan's book, they said "pleased that this matter has been resolved in an appropriate and timely fashion.". Crown also went on to thank Megan McCafferty for "her grace under pressure throughout this ordeal".

As for the authors involved in these recent events, Megan McCafferty spoke out via a statement she put out through Crown. ABC News quoted some of the statement, in which McCafferty said "the past few weeks have been very difficult, and I am most grateful to my readers for offering continual support. In my career, I am, first and foremost, a writer. So I look forward to getting back to work and moving on, and hope Ms. Viswanathan can too." McCafferty also said that she is "not seeking restitution in any form" from Kaavya Viswanathan.

Viswanathan has been full of apology ever since it came to light that she had "unintentionally borrowed" from McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings. However, according to ABC News, the press hasn't hurt sales of Opal Metha. "It was No. 96 on the Amazon.com best seller list Thursday night, but had jumped to No. 25 as of Friday morning. A first edition, apparently unsigned, was being offered on eBay for $49."

Kaavya Viswanathan's novel deals with Opal, a New Jersey girl who gets straight A's through high school but gets rejected by Harvard for not having an equally ambitious social life. In order to get her past the admissions office of Harvard, Opal's father brainstorms the idea of HOWGAL, or How Opal Will Get A Life. In Megan McCafferty's books, Jessica Darling, another New Jersey girl, excels academically, but deals with her social ineptness and longs to find a boyfriend. McCafferty has three books in her Jessica Darling series, Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings and Charmed Thirds.

[Additional Sources: Forbes, CBS News, ABC News, Associated Press]

- Doug Pendrell