His paternal grandfather was born in Kastavštine, but due to work moved to the Šibenik region at the end of the 19th century to become one of the areas first electrician's.

[9] In 1965, after completing his compulsory military service, Mandić settled permanently in Zagreb, working as a part-time literary critic for the Croatian daily Vjesnik.

Particularly controversial was his music criticism; among others, his statement that Tchaikovsky's works "belong[ed] in a museum" drew an array of irate letters to the editor coming from individuals and organizations alike.

[10] To resolve the problem, Vjesnik's director Božidar Novak asked Miroslav Krleža, a leading Croatian and Yugoslav writer and intellectual of the era, what he thought about Igor Mandić's writings.

[12] Mandić felt this criticism was unfair and responded with an unprecedented open letter to Dragosavac, published in Oko magazine, in which he stood by his text, arguing that "one cannot falsify the history of literature by omitting parts which in no way have been ideologically condemned".

[12] Dragosavac replied with an open letter of his own, maintaining that Mandić's review was unacceptable because of its "ideological-political aspects", but assured him that his status as an author should not be endangered.

[12] The attack on Mandić was continued by Komunist, the official publication of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which — in an article titled "Misuse of our Democracy" — accused Mandić of "nationalism in action", and also criticized Oko and Vjesnik for publishing the two open letters without comment, that is, without saying who was right and who was wrong.

[14] Finally, Mandić was attacked in an article published in Vjesnik itself, which also warned against "bourgeois ideology, and the traditionally anticommunist and separatist base of Croatian nationalism".

[4][16] He kept his employment, but was reassigned to Erotika, Vjesnik's softcore magazine,[15] and, while he was still able to publish his books, they went without a single review in the media.

[4] From 1993 to 1995, Mandić wrote cultural commentaries for Slobodna Dalmacija, and since 1997 he worked as a freelance writer, publishing in various periodicals such as Novi Plamen.