Blotting Her Copy Book

‘KAAVYA VISWANATHAN has an ambition to be big in letters. And being a smart kind of girl, before putting pen to paper she did some research.

And only when she was ready did she begin to write. And what she wrote was a hit. The 19-year-old, who left Britain for America when she was 12, has signed a big money deal for her fist novel. Publishers Little Brown & Company paid her $500,000 (£280,000) in a two-book deal.

And, as is the way with books, there are plans to turn her tale into a Hollywood film.

How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life cannot fail. As the Times says, the novel is based on the writer’s life on a “boot camp” designed to get her into Harvard, was a winner from the moment she wrote: “Finally, four major department stores and 170 speciality shops later…”

You see, another writer, one Megan McCafferty, has enjoyed sucsess with a similar line. McCafferty, whose books have sold is their hundreds of thousands, writes: “Five department stores and 170 speciality shops later.”

And, as the Times reports, there are a lot more similarities.

McCafferty: “He tapped me on the shoulder, and said something so random that I was afraid he was back on the junk.”

Viswanathan: “He tapped me on the shoulder and said something so random I worried that he needed more expert counselling than I could provide.”

And:

McCafferty: “Bridget is my age and lives across the street. For the first 12 years of my life, these qualifications were all I needed in a best friend. But that was before Bridget’s braces came off and her boyfriend Burke got on.”

Viswanathan: “Priscilla was my age and lived two blocks away. For the first 15 years of my life, those were the only qualifications I needed in a best friend . . . But that was before freshman year, when Priscilla’s glasses came off, and the first in a long string of boyfriends got on.”

As Viswanathan says, in what are believed to be her own words: ‘I am a huge fan of her work and can honestly say that any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious.’

She then mumbled something about it being the best of time and the worst of times, how in the beginning was the word and that the word was Ishmael…’

Posted: 26th, April 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink