A review by jar7709
The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjöberg

5.0

You know I love the odd ones, the experimental ones. This lovely little pseudo-nature-memoir has earned a place in my re-read someday pile. Like the scattered, unpredictable flight of his beloved hoverflies, Mr. Sjoberg flits from childhood to life and obsession on his 15 square kilometer Swedish island, and back again. Yes it is about those things, but it is also about what drives the collector of tiny, unusual things and the perfection of short, defined timescales. He also stops along the way to explore his dissatisfaction with travel...a lovely antidote to the Cult of Travel currently infecting my media and social feeds. It does take concentration to find the point in some of Mr. Sjoberg's anecdotes, perhaps like it takes concentration to determine one rare species of hoverfly from another, and casual readers perhaps will find that tiresome; but I share in some of the authors habits, I suspect, and therefore found this quite enjoyable. I highlighted many passages throughout for their wry humor and or insight, but I think this one sums up the effort in explaining his writing motivation: "Against all odds, some poor presbyopic chump takes a shot at it, maybe so he won’t make himself ill by sensing a truth no one else sees. And he falls flat on his face, of course, his truth as incomprehensible and strange as it was to begin with. But at least he’s tried." I'm glad he tried.