A FEW WORDS ABOUT “LOVE & HATE” OR WHAT I THINK MR. MUNIR MEZYED WROTE IN THIS NOVEL

Muguras Maria PETRESCU







Since I am to speak about this book I would start with “If any one of you is without sin, let he be the first to cast a stone.” (p.29)

Entitled with the simplicity of the very much disputed aesthetic category “LOVE & HATE” Mr. Munir Mezyed’s novel invites us to meditate on our everyday existence which leads us in a compulsory way, from its point of view, and in a conscious way, from our point of view, to what we call the road to ecstasy interweaved with that of agony. But under a completely new approach now at the beginning of the 21st century and with a lot of accuracy in comparison to the world we live in.

Intriguing from the point of view of its title and to the sense that something pushes us to open it and not abandon it anymore, LOVE & HATE conveys to us that clear and bright message: “I think this is the message which we all, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc., have to comply with and follow.” (p. 30-31). Love one another, be tolerant and above all forget the phrase “kill him, he is the murderer.” (p.13).

“-Mankind is one community, and Allah (God) sent unto them prophets as bearers of good tidings and to bring warnings.

-O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! The noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct.

-And let there be from you a nation who invites to goodness, and enjoys right conduct, and forbids indecency.” (p.30)

I wonder what would be the best for us? To believe that it would have been much better to have lived in the jungle that in the civilized world? Mr. Munir Mezyed keeps us quite beside ourselves increasing the tension gradually in Chapter.42 Terrorists. All falls down with the finding out of shocking piece of news – the hijacked plane – the news that there are innocent people there who have been killed. “We again had to wait with fear and worry for the news of the victims. We did receive the numbers, but no names. There had been three killed in the fighting to release the hostages, two killed at the hands of hijackers, and fifteen injured. More waiting, to find out who had survived and who had been killed. When the survivors arrived, everyone was eagerly searching for their loved ones. Tears of joy were on the faces of those who found their loved ones, while fear remained on the faces of the others. after a long wait, we discovered my father’s name on the list of the victims, He was one of the two shot by the terrorists.” (p. 260). The piece of news is fatal and sounds as an implacable cut of guillotine.

Built upon the principle of the Socratic dialogues of Plato, LOVE&HATE walks us in the company of two characters Matthew and Endymion alias Andrew. The names are not at all chosen at random. Matthew - the Apostle and Evangelist who will write in the Aramaic language then will translate in Greek the Gospel in order to make known to everybody who Christ is – is to write a book about Andrew as a ma, and Endymion as a creator-writer. Matthew embodies the wisdom, simplicity, faith and according to the writer he is a journalist “a very well dressed young man and with a pleasant look” (p. 15) in search for truth. Throughout the book Matthew is a discrete presence who supports and incites Andrew and/or Endymion to tell his life. Matthew reveals an Andrew, the first disciple who called to the apostleship (here we speak about Andrew’s/Endymion’s apostolic mission of a writer, of a creator) an Andrew with human face and feelings who has to go, against his will, through hard times, who has to admit his parents’ divorce as well as the fact that his mother turns out deliberately the prison of her first marriage with Maurad al-Nasser with that of Frank Taylor, a teacher of history, a bad man secluded into Christians doctrines, with limited ideas. “When she contemplated my face, she would gently glide her finger over my features as her eyes filled with tears. I believe that my face reminded her of my father, as I do look like him. I think she finally realized what she had lost, and felt the reality of loneliness, cold nights, frustration and the dull rhythm of life. In the end, she married a man just for the sake of companionship. I believe she could have worked out with my father, is she had tried.” (p.230).

Out of a man in his nearly 70’s at the beginning of the book Andrew tells his life, rejuvenates more and more, shows himself to us as a child, teenager, knows his first love, graduates his studies, brilliantly, gets married to Sophie (whom he does not love but only respects) following his mother’s advise, passing in a gradual manner through all the moods which lead from happiness to sadness, reaching the climax with his father’s or Patsy’s death and buries his sorrows far from reality and far from the nightmare of the life in Endymion’s dreaming (“I grew older and so do the dream and sorrow” – p.267).

Endymion, a character with the profoundness of the Greek myth, the symbol of the dream and dreamy state translated in the liberty of the positivist thinking in the thirst of knowledge, with the power of a demiurge-poet, but also an theist is a creator but also a MASTER, he is again, according to the same acceptation of the writer not a “Lunatic” (p.15) but the old man who knows that the truth Matthew looks for is in the tight shoe which Endymion inherited more than two thousands years ago. “Well actually I don’t deny the existence of God, he replied, but at the same time I can’t be assured of his existence, which does not make me an atheist. It is all a matter of belief and faith. I mean we have no solid proof of that except what religions have taught us, and this is all metaphysical teachings. It is like believing in ghosts or in the existence of fairies, jinni or angels. It is up to you to believe or not, nothing is certain. Whosoever claims to know the evident truth, lies…! Whosoever emulates light shall cut hydra’s head off, casting it into the lake of fires. So, I am not going to lie and do not try to force me on that.” (p. 28)

Mr. Munir Mezyed himself cannot resist the temptation to be in turns Matthew or Andrew or Endymion or even that neutral and impartial commentator who always speaks calmly and peacefully with warmth luring us into the lecture of the book. The metaphors of the life (existence, belief, hate, attitude towards war, family and social relationships, love, etc.) are interweaved discretely and in a refined way, naturally and in perfectly synchronized dancing steps with the epic of the book. The dialogue between Endymion and Matthew passes naturally and easily from the story of Andrew’s life to philosophic dissertations and answers given by Andrew/Endymion with artistry and simplicity, especially conceived on everybody’s interest. “Love is a rebellious god, dreaming of a new creation”, Endymion defined. Then explaining, “If you look around at nature, you will see everything is in a state of procreating. This is why man first worshiped the goddess of fertility.”

Surprised, Matthew asked, “What does that have to do with love?”

“Just listen and I will explain,” started Endymion. “Sex is for the procreation of the species. Every creator on earth can procreate, but how many feel love? Love is an entirely different thing. Love is an emotional experience involving body, mind and soul. Love can exist without sex, Sex can exist without love. But when you love someone, sex becomes more that the means of procreation or a pleasurable release of tensions. It becomes the way of total sharing, of becoming one, the ultimate union, becoming whole if only for a second. Love is our soul’s way of looking for its other heart. Early man wanted to increase the numbers in his tribe, so he would pray to the goddess of fertility to send him many sons. The more sons, the more warriors, and the tribe with the greatest number of warriors had the advantage and could control more territory and destroy their enemies. In this example, sex was good for hate. Rape is another example of sex being used for hate and not love. It is important that sex and love not be confused, but I am afraid that few know the difference anymore. Too many confuse lust or need with love. they are not in touch with their emotions, and so mistakes are made. I think this is one reason for so many divorces.”

“I never thought about it quite that way before,” said Matthew. “You have shown me that sex itself has no meaning, it is emotion that gives it importance. Love and hate are the two most powerful emotions humans have, and we should not use them to play games.” (p.23-24)

And out of all this natural logic, Mr. Munir Mezyed keeps on going with the mastership of his playing with words up to where a chapter ends with certain words - “Speaking of games, what kind of game do you consider life to be?” (p.24) - which will suggest the title of the next chapter “Life and Chess”.

And again out of Endymion logical deductions we get to his nightmare expressed in a hallucinating way in humorous aphorisms: “Temptation is the seed of evil planted by woman. Thus a woman will always remain a woman, even if the devil has seduced her. When the devil seduces a man, the man perishes.” (p.19-20)

The technique of the novel is that of a scene into a scene. A whole unit, the book divides the screen into several more scenes. Everything gets together but can also take place on separate chapters. The theatrical description remains above all achieved minutely and the writer does not lose the smallest stage-manager’s detail or stage directive: “When they entered the room, Matthew looked around. the room was very small, containing a single bed, an old television, a small refrigerator, two chairs, one of which was a rocker. It had a private bathroom, a dull looking closet, and on walls hung two paintings and three pictures. Under each picture was a poem. Matthew stood before the pictures reading the poems.” (p.21).

Although an Arab and a Muslim Mr. Munir Mezyed presents to us in his novel various religious festivals proving that he is very well informed. This is extremely important because the author is a methodical person without being a boring one, but this is also important for the outline of his characters. Thus Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, of Devotion and commemorates the fight of the Maccabees (the explanation is needed for Linda Kohlstradt, a Jewish woman of a Polish origin). Thanksgiving Day is observed the fourth Thursday of November in USA. In 1941 it was declared a National holiday. Explanation is imposed because of Frank Taylor’s presence, a character hated and portrayed as such, but also because the greatest part of the novel takes place in USA. The Ramadan is the Holy Month during which all Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. It is the month in which the Prophet Mohammad had his first revelation from God, revelation which was given to him by angel Gabriel. During this month, the Muslims pray, make good deeds, the rich help the poor and they all hope that peace will govern the earth. The Ramadan ends with the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Holy City where Prophet Mohammad was born. All this information was necessary because Andrew is born from a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. Hence the religious confusion he lives. Being a child in Palestine with his parents, they celebrated the Muslim holidays and never Christmas. But Andrew used to go to his friends at Christmas and they attended his religious parties. Because Linda is a is a Jewish they observed Hanukkah in that house in Palestine and his parents used to invite Jewish families to them. But since they moved in USA “I wanted to celebrate Christmas with my friends, but my parents wouldn’t let me, claiming that we were not Christians. My father kept telling me that I was a Muslim, and we only celebrate the two-Eid. After their divorce, my mom wouldn’t let me celebrate Christmas or the Eid, only Hanukkah. Now that she and Frank are married, we only celebrate Christmas. Frank wants me to go to church and won’t allow me to bring my Jewish or Muslim friends to our house.” (p.98)

We come back to Endymion, his visions and the theory of the circle of perfection:



In my revelation

The harp of the goddess of lyrics Persists in playing

I sing....

In the beginning was my beloved and the spirit of God was moving

Upon the face of waters....

My beloved is a godly mermaid with legendary colors.

She descended from heaven unto my waters....

I bathe her in the brine of my tears....

Subtle in her long braids..

Floating in my spirit singing to me.

She intermingles her essence with my burning desires,

Lights the candle of my verse with nectar and passion.

Oh, my beloved, how far I am from you

But I am nearer to death!

Withered like clouds,

Grievous like a violet rose plunged in ice,

And life is but an old, ill man

Thus, I am still waiting...!

Life bears a resemblance to death here,

The eyelashes of the room enclose me,

A lamp in the ark wherein fire warms not the sepulcher

Thus, I am still waiting...!

Am I truly alive..?

Or, is there life living in death?

My wait dances with me, my fears flatter me

And I am still waiting..

I stroll...

I stroll with my ennui, with a spirit enshrouded in mist,

Whilst a sea is rising straight up to the shores of my soul,

And the water soaking the stones of my heart.

In your voice is the murmur of fabled water

Whispering to the sands and stones,

What will come forth, and that will go into a dream,

An eminent dream that will live in concert

And leave with autumn winds.

You appear in the sky saying, Bless this pain,

The pain indwelling in the depths,

Glittering apparently in the spirit

Like a frozen pond in winter.

It echoes like sighs coming from a distant flute

Filling the air with melodies.

Melodies which are chanted by gods

Who cry and moan with the sad tune.

They pray, and call,

"O Allah, who is he who makes souls cry..?" (p.299-302)



The divine inspiration to write, the career of a writer and poet, the long and difficult road, his visions come from a woman who haunted his dreams all his life, whome he looked for and loved all his life, a woman who always protected him and gave him not only the earthly love but also the divive inspiration. she is the angel woman, Daphne, the Queen of Birds, who takes the shape of a marine nymphe, Selene, the goddess of the moon he falls in love with. ”It was during this period, that I saw you in my dreams constantly. You urged me to forget my giref and to publish what I wrote. You kept telling me that I was born to be writer, reminding me of the things I had seen in my childhood, pushing me to write about the angel woman with her harp and song, and the dancing sparrows. Since then you have been the bride of my dreams, my beloved spirit wife, my muse, my fairy lady, and the missing half of my soul that completes the circle. This is how my life you started.” (p.298)

Love & Hate is a book that you want to read first of all because you are greedy to sip its content and because you are trapped in its toils as well as in the game of the two characters. But the second time you feel like reading it again because you want to enter it, in its universe, to meditate with it and by it and you want to understand its profound philosophical and permanently human meaning and that’s “All is a matter of belief and faith. And this is the essay of life, our essay, everybody’s essays.”

Love & Hate does not make an attempt to find THE TRUTH out but urges us (for how many times in the history of the mankind?) to stop and see “the two weird-looking strangers. One of them was tall with a pair of huge black wings and the heads of hydra, the nine-headed serpent. The other one was beautiful, with snow white wings and radiant features, like an angel. Both of them commanded him to come closer and said. “We are your deeds!” As he was about to move, they flew into the air and started to fight each other. He stood still, amazed and frightened, watching the fight. The fight went on and on until they both were exhausted, but neither gaining and advantage. An echoing cry was heard telling them to stop fighting. thus God appeared as a ghostly gleam and His voice could be heard coming out of the light saying, “I shall cast thee out and send thee back to the earth.” (p.14)



Muguras Maria PETRESCU