Unreserved Autobiographical Confession: Drago Pilsel's "Argentine Novel"
"Argentine Novel" by Drago Pilsel is an autobiography that reads like a novel. Raised in a family close to the Ustasha ideology, Pilsel learned from a young age that the world and people are divided into "ours" and "theirs." This is the story of what happens when a person decides to leave such a world – and how much it really costs.
TL;DR
- Drago Pilsel's autobiography, "Argentine Novel," is presented as a novel-like personal account.
- Pilsel grew up in Argentina in a family influenced by the Ustasha ideology, with relatives connected to the Gestapo and Ante Pavelić.
- He led a double life as a youth, engaging in human rights advocacy against dictatorship on weekdays and being immersed in a fascist-laden family environment on weekends.
- A conversation with a friend, an Argentine priest, sparked a long process of re-evaluation that culminated in this book.
- The book is an intimate confession about childhood, faith, family, inherited ideology, personal delusions, losses, and the slow exit from a seemingly destined identity.
- Pilsel's writing is described as unpretentious, without need for justification, and focuses on internal, often unseen, life changes.
- The Belgrade edition of his autobiography brings him closer to Serbian friends and acquaintances, to whom he has dedicated much of his life since co-founding the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in 1993 to defend endangered Serbs in Croatia.
- The book is seen as a testament to his friendship with Serbs and his commitment to ecumenical relations between Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
- Miljenko Jergović describes the book as being about transformation and the need to be a "John" in times when "Jovans" are persecuted.
- Boris Dežulović notes Pilsel as a unique figure moving in the opposite direction of many Croats in the early 1990s who were seeking to strengthen their Croatian identity.
- Drago Pilsel is a journalist and theologian, born in Buenos Aires in 1962, with a diverse educational background in engineering, journalism, Christian spirituality, and theology.