The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjoberg

I don’t know why I picked up this book and brought it home to read.  Certainly, entomology is not one of my interests; moreover, I know nothing about insects of any kind, except that they are always present and they can be annoying.  Sjoberg is an entomologist, and The Fly Trap is ostensibly a book a book about his development and his study of hoverflies.  But it is much more than that.  He delves into the fascinating story of a early 20th century entomologist, Rene Malaise, discusses the obsessive curiosity of the collector, talks about the joy of observing the smallest things in the natural world, the necessity of ‘reading nature’, and the peace derived from loneliness.  In a voice which is self-deprecatingly honest he reveals both the humor and the beauty in the life he spends on a remote island off the coast of Sweden.  His style might be said to imitate the flight path of certain insects, seemingly erratic, but somehow reaching the goal.  In short, this contemplative book’s observations of the natural world and the people in it, force us the meditate of the meaning of life and our relationship to it.