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This book consists of five linocut narratives by the Croatian artist Miroslav Nemeth, originally published in Gobshite Quarterly.
In "The Roman Key," light, lighthearted, fanciful, spare and surreal two-part drawings tell the tale of Nemeth's search for the key to "Roma," the city or a girl. Roma's ambiguity is playful and charming, as are his rhymes.
With complex, expressionist linocuts, "I Had a Dog" illustrates the tale of Nemeth's pet Afghan hound who "behaved like a king." The neighborhood is enchanted with the dog's gentleness. Then the dog becomes inexplicably aggressive, first biting Nemeth, then biting anyone who provokes him by walking along the fence.
"The Hood" is a complex visual description of parts of Nemeth's childhood. The view from his shared bedroom window, happy and welcoming, optimistic; his older brother becoming a "Tito Pioneer," Nemeth given a small flag; Nemeth going to school, the school starkly, darkly pyramidal, untrustworthy, as he walks to it with the other children; an eerily welcoming church as he discovers God; the walk home from school, the cross on the traffic island reminding him that the church is still there.
"A Smell from a Nose" expands the description of Nemeth's childhood. Holidays and soccer and the sea add to his joy, though the cross on the traffic island remains. As he becomes a teenager the family moves to a house near the city graveyard; he sees a chicken killed and the fragility of life, returns home and becomes almost housebound.
"Metaphysics in the Yard," is also set in the world of childhood. Jagged panes/perspectives irrupt into each other, collide on the page, while the tale considers clashing viewpoints about fear and self-recognition.
Nemeth and his father are in the garden; Nemeth sees an ugly bug and wants it killed. His father picks the bug up. It begs for its life, grows huge, and leaves him unrecognizable.
