MixedThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)In...early sequences, some of the strongest in the novel, Mishra offers a startling exploration of the grim deal habitually struck in this pillar of Indian education ... It is Alia’s presence, and project, that allow Mishra to bridge the gap between the personal histories of Arun and his friends and the recent history of New India as a whole, and to offer the suggestion that the self-reinvention practised by the characters may have detached the likes of Aseem and Virendra not only from history but also, at some level, from ethical responsibility ... When this connection comes off, the results are both impressive and impressively unsettling; but, as Arun’s memories take us closer to the present, Mishra’s narrative begins to feel less confident in itself ... Mishra seems to become less trusting in the ability of his details to do the talking for him, sly narrative observation making way for clunky expository dialogue ... It is as though Pankaj Mishra felt the need to remind his readers what an important analysis of the psyche of New India Run and Hide is, when the best parts of the novel do that anyway, with so much less fuss and so much more style.
