In “‘As usual, words fail him’—6 great literary feuds,” a glorified “list” story meant to entertain, The Telegraph’s Morwenna Ferrier and Rupert Hawksley offer a fluff piece that doesn’t go into much detail and didn’t involve much research. But it’s worth noting that Updike gets a mention:
Salman Rushdie vs John Updike
“Rushdie, as we know, is no stranger to controversy, but his battle with John Updike tops all his feuds.
“In 2006, Updike denounced Rushdie’s novel, Shalimar the Clown, writing ‘Why, oh why did Salman Rushdie, in his new novel call one of his major characters Maximilian Ophuls?.’ Rushdie responded to Updike’s query in The Guardian: ‘Why, oh why… ? Well, why not? Somewhere in Las Vegas there’s probably a male prostitute called “John Updike”.’ He went on to describe Updike’s latest, Terrorist, as ‘beyond awful,’ and suggested Updike should ‘stay in his parochial neighbourhood and write about wife-swapping, because it’s what he can do.’ Because what’s a little quibbling between literary giants…”
Yes, a fluff piece, but (as you say) an entertaining one. My quibble with the list: Harold Bloom vs JK Rowling does not really qualify as a feud, as Rowling (to her credit) chose not to engage the snobbish blowhard Bloom or respond in any way to his hyperbolic denunciations of the Harry Potter books.
Also, the article ranks the Rushdie-Updike feud as the former’s biggest. But surely the (not listed) Rushdie-LeCarre feud over ‘Satanic Verses’ was more contentious.