By Devika Bagchi
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Monday, April 24, 2006, The OG, arts

“How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life: A Novel,” by Kaavya Viswanathan, is a lighthearted and amusing story about an Indian-American high school senior from New Jersey. Opal Mehta has worked her entire life to create a textbook-perfect résumé so she will be accepted into her dream school, Harvard University. Her parents have also been preparing, having implemented the HOWGIH (How Opal Will Get Into Harvard) plan shortly after Opal's birth.

Opal Mehta could definitely get a clue to life from her creator, Kaavya Viswanathan. At 19, Viswanathan has achieved more than many people do in a lifetime. She is a sophomore at Harvard, which was her dream school, much like Opal. Oh, and at the age of 17 she had already notched a two-book deal worth $500,000 with the publishing company Little, Brown. DreamWorks has bought the rights to make a movie based on her debut novel.

In the character of Opal Mehta, Viswanathan produces the stereotypical geek. She is an overachieving but nondescript student who would just like to be invisible. She spends her weekends studying and playing board games with the elderly, has no friends except her cat, Mr. Muffty, and is the founder of the Science Bowl Team at her school. She is valedictorian of her class, first chair in a regional orchestra, and the president of three of her school's four honors societies (only because the fourth couldn't be fit into her schedule). Oh yeah, and she counts prime numbers when she's nervous.

With her array of extracurricular activities, years of language lessons, near-perfect test scores, and high GPA, Opal feels that she is ready for Harvard. She prepares for her early admission interview, coming up with answers for every question she could possibly be asked. When she goes to Harvard for her interview, however, Opal gets the shock of her life. The dean asks Opal the one question that she cannot answer: “What do you like to do for fun?”

Ultimately, the dean of admissions tells her that he will give her another chance, but she needs to become well-rounded, make friends and “experience being young.” How does someone who has spent her entire life studying suddenly switch gears and enjoy life, let alone in four months? By using another plan known as HOWGAL (How Opal Will Get a Life), of course.

Opal's consequent journey to get kissed, get wild, and get a life is filled with anecdotes and incidents that are amusing and very familiar to adolescents. Readers follow as Opal goes from a geek to a member of the Haute Bitchez, the preps who rule the school, much like the Plastics from “Mean Girls.”

Her parents are comical figures, although very unrealistic, as they try to transform their plain daughter into the It Girl at her high school. Mini-skirts, makeup, hip music, and slang phrases are just the first layer of the intricate HOWGAL plan. The stereotypical Indian parents, who are oblivious to their “uncoolness,” are the source of many laughs, as well as some rolled eyes.

For example, at one point, Opal's mom leaves a note on the fridge, which reads: “Out to pick you up some new high-volume mascara. Your principal called. He said you cut class and were seen getting into a Range Rover with the popular girls. We've never been so proud of you.”

No parent that I know of would ever leave such a note. These moments in the novel do add charm to the story of a lost flower-on-the-wall trying to be someone she isn't, but these points also take away from the realism of a novel that, if taken in a different direction, could have been highly entertaining and believable.

“How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” is a quick, funny read. However, perhaps the topic of an outcast trying to be part of the “in-crowd” has become a tad bit overused. Oftentimes, while I was reading the book, I'd feel a sense of déjà vu because a lot of the obstacles that Opal came up against seemed to be taken right out of “Mean Girls.”

It seems as if Viswanathan started out with a novel idea to tell the credible story of a college-hyped teen, but as the book wears on, the plot becomes more and more superficial and starts to resemble the numerous teen books and movies that are constantly coming out. As a reader, I went into the book thinking I could relate to the feelings of Opal, a college-crazed teen, but as the novel progressed, I felt that the point of the novel changed and I started laughing less and rolling my eyes more.

The novel is well written and entertaining, but it doesn't really leave the reader with any impression. It's one of those books that someone would read on a rainy day, or when he or she was in a bad mood and needed uplifting.

However, don't make the mistake of reading this book to learn anything. It's unrealistic, happy-go-lucky, and very “fluffy.” Nonetheless it is a funny train wreck of a story, complete with mean girls, high school romances, wild parties, and many laughs.