Bilo pa prošlo: autobiografski zapisi
The book "Once Upon a Time in History" is actually the closest to a classic memoir, as it deals with the dramatic 1970s, the period of the Croatian Spring.
The author writes about these events after four decades; he is in his mature years, a recognized writer, an academic; one would expect that from the pedestal of a career writer, in his memories of the seventies, he would romantically outline his personal role in historical turmoil. Pavličić, however, consciously chooses an outsider position, minimizing even those facts of his own political engagement that many would try to properly capitalize on in post-communist times. It is precisely this, depathetized narrative position; the insistence on the "low position of the narrator", who observes major events from a lower perspective, sometimes with mild humor, that is the main feature of this book, which tends more to outline the atmosphere of a time, to paint ordinary life, than to pathetically paint great historical frescoes.
One copy is available
