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April 28, 2006
TT: While I'm bristling
From this morning's Wall Street Journal, a piece of much-chewed-over news about which most of you have already heard:Lagardère SCA's Little, Brown & Co. imprint said it is pulling from the nation's bookstores Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan's novel "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" because of similarities between certain passages in Ms. Viswanathan's work and two teen novels written by Megan McCafferty.
Little, Brown's decision will be an expensive one for the publisher, because 55,000 copies of the book have been shipped....
Ms. Viswanathan signed a two-book contract valued at an estimated $500,000 as a 17-year-old. Her novel tells the story of Opal, a brainy student who needs to broaden her life if she's going to be accepted by Harvard.
Ms. Viswanathan quickly became a media celebrity after her novel was published earlier this month.
Ms. Viswanathan has apologized, but insisted that the copying was an unintentional error.
To which I have but one thing to add: Little, Brown & Co., having been stupid and tasteless enough first to sign a seventeen-year-old author to a $500,000 contract, then to publish a novel by her called How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, is richly deserving of whatever bad things happen to it as a result.
I think I'll take that walk in Central Park a couple of days ahead of schedule. I've reached my target dudgeon level for the week.
Posted April 28, 2006 12:40 PM
