How Kaavya Viswanathan got busted

Well, no big surprise: today Opal Mehta was recalled by the publisher. From my email inbox:

IMPORTANT NOTICE
TO BOOKSELLERS
REGARDING
HOW OPAL MEHTA GOT KISSED,
GOT WILD, AND GOT A LIFE
By Kaavya Viswanathan
Little, Brown and Company is requesting that booksellers stop sales
and return copies of
HOW OPAL MEHTA GOT KISSED,
GOT WILD, AND GOT A LIFE
(0-316-05988-9, $21.95)
Returns must be made by June 15, 2006.

Perhaps the charges of plagiarism are correct; perhaps something a little shadier is going on. I don't know if Kaavya Viswanathan was caught red-handed or if her delight in receiving a half-million dollar advance allowed her to turn a blind eye to what some ghostwriter was doing.

I do wonder what it's like to have your writing career destroyed at age 17.