The Fly Trap

April 1, 2015
A literary memoir by the Swedish author, a man who lives on an island and collects flies, reflecting on the significance of his obsession. Both an entomologist and a literary critic, Sjoberg blurs the border between these two vocations while exploring plenty of other territory as well. "Here and there, my story is about something else," he admits. "Exactly what, I don't know." Readers will share his uncertainty, as he proceeds like one of his beloved hoverflies, flitting from his experiences on an island east of Stockholm to his meditations on time, concentration, and the language of geography to his literary appreciations of D.H. Lawrence, Milan Kundera, and Bruce Chatwin to his investigations into the life of an obscure naturalist-turned-art collector. The author recognizes that devoting his life to flies might not have the romantic resonance with readers that butterflies would, but he finds himself within a realm where "everything flies, absolutely everything," a world that can be read as "a thousand commentaries. An entire apparatus of footnotes." Most of the book takes place within the mind of the author-the connections he makes and the implications he finds-though sometimes he ventures out to provide naturalistic detail of his life on the island or historical inquiry into the lives of entomologists with whom he seems to be having more of a conversation than with any of his living contemporaries. In a rare encounter with another human, who asks what he is doing and why, he reflects, "It is at such moments that the entomologist becomes a story-teller. He is prepared to do almost anything to get someone to listen and perhaps understand. He is prepared to use any ruse or artifice to avoid being the only one who sees." In sharing the experience of solitude and reflection, Sjoberg invites readers to see through his eyes, in language that is often poetic, sometimes inscrutable.

August 1, 2015

Literary Critic Sjoberg's work occupies the Venn diagram intersection of philosophy, poetry, and entomology--that's entomology with an "n," the study of insects. More precisely in Sjoberg's case, the study of hoverflies, family Syrphidae. While flies may not seem the most lyrical of topics, as the author admits, they are an access point for a book-length riff on facets of the human condition that interest him: the urge to collect and classify, the freedom inherent in a highly limited field of study, ambivalence about travel, loneliness, persistence, and joy. Loosely organized around the story of Swedish naturalist Rene Malaise (1892-1978), inventor of the titular fly trap, the book is not a biography--nor is it a monograph, scientific treatise, or narrative. Sjoberg free-associates yet manages to string his musings together in a way that keeps the work bobbing gently along and doesn't edge into self-indulgence. What this title is really about, in Sjoberg's words, is "the creative imagination that characterizes artists and good scientists." VERDICT This little Swedish koan of a book is not for everyone but will delight those looking for an offbeat and often charming read.--Lisa Peet, Library Journal

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