MehtaPhor, act III

Thought that Indian-American girl's troubles were over? Thought the story would die down now that the publisher has pulled her book from shelves? Not even close. Readers have found plagarized passages from additional books by everyone from Salman Rushdie to Sophie Kinsella.

Perhaps we'll soon see a story like this:

Teen author also stole from Jefferson, Twain, Whitman, others

A close examination of Kaavya Viswanathan's now-infamous debut novel "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" has uncovered passages from several famous American authors, according to media reports.

The Harvard Independent reported that a passage on page 164 of the novel, which is about the life of an over-achieving daughter of Indian immigrants, resembled Article III, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. The passage reads:

"You're a traitor, Jenny!" I said.

"Am not!" Jenny replied. "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."

The New York Times reported that a lyrical passage on page 70 resembles the work of poet Walt Whitman:

"My daddy's country place is a thousand acres," Buffy said.

"Oh, that's not so big," I said.

"Oh yeah? Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? Have you even reckon'd the earth much? Do you even know how to read?"

"Yes, I can read your face, and it says loser. You may be interested in real estate, but I'm a poet. Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?"

Finally, the long sequence in pages 213-29, in which the title character is lost in a cave and menaced by a first-generation Indian immigrant named Joe is much the same as a passage from Mark Twain's "Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

A spokesperson for Little, Brown, Viswanathan's publisher, refused comment except to say "We thought the 'Indian Joe' sequence was a brilliant ethnic satire."