Kaavya Viswanathan’s story gets a new plot

MUMBAI: Kaavya Viswanathan, the 19-year-old Harvard University undergraduate, has admitted that her highly publicised novel, ‘How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life’, features material from another author’s work.

But her acknowledgement, rather than relieving the US publishing industry of embarrassment, has made two distinguished companies square off against each other.

Kaavya’s publisher Little, Brown, and Random House, which commissioned Megan McCafferty’s books from which Kaavya is said to have plagiarised, have been exchanging brusque communiqués through their counsels.

Kaavya has said that her borrowings were ‘accidental’. But her association with 17th Street Productions - a book development firm specialising in teen narratives, which helped her plan the plot - has pushed the issue from being a case of plagiarism to a scandal threatening to undermine US publishing.

As firms such as 17th Street Productions proliferate, promising to unearth that ‘hidden novel’ from anyone who is willing to invest a few dollars, the line between plot development and outright copying is beginning to dissolve.

This concern was tacitly expressed by Min Jung Lee, assistant general counsel of Random House: “...given the alarming similarities in the language, structure, and characters already found in these works, we are certain that some literal copying actually occurred here,” he wrote in a letter to Little, Brown.

Kaavya has promised to change her book for future editions. “When I was in high school, I read and loved two wonderful novels by Megan McCafferty, ‘Sloppy Firsts’ and ‘Second Helpings’, which spoke to me in a way few other books did,” she said in a statement. “Recently, I was very surprised and upset to learn that there are similarities between some passages in my novel ... and passages in these books.”

Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch has said he did not think Kaavya’s borrowings were caused by the pressures of being both student and author. 

Pietsch also declined to blame Kaavya's collaboration with 17th Street Productions. “Every word in that book was written by her, for better or for worse,” he said, adding that work on a new edition will begin on Tuesday.

Published in March, 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed...' was the first of a two-book deal reportedly worth six figures. The book had a first print of 100,000 copies and DreamWorks has already secured the movie rights. Kaavya was just 17 when she signed her contract with Little, Brown and is the youngest author to be signed by the publisher in decades.

But on Sunday, the Harvard Crimson, the university's in-house newspaper, cited seven passages in the book that closely resembled the style and language of McCafferty's novel.

“While the central stories of my book and hers are completely different,” said Kaavya, “I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalised Ms McCafferty's words.”

Kaavya has received support from highly regarded novelist Amitav Ghosh, a visiting professor who teaches creative writing at Harvard and didn't see his first book in print until he was 30. “She has astonishing poise,” Ghosh said. “At Harvard, there are many, many very fine writers. Her writing has a kind of a pitch-perfect novelist's diction.” 
—With Agencies