I've been catapulted back into anti-Irving-ville.

From USA Today:

NEW YORK (AP) — A month after running a negative review of John Irving's new novel, The Washington Post has run a negative review of that review.

I just feel that regardless of the reasoning, it's a little gross for an author to write in and complain about a review.  It reeks of bad sportsmanship.  He could have at least had a friend make the complaint.  We'd all still know that it was Irving complaining, but it wouldn't look nearly as bad.