A WWII Hero Reimagined
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         Julie Orringer asserts in an author’s note that the historical record shows that Fry had sexual and romantic relationships with men, “and that he thought actively about his inclinations,” even if he never spoke openly about them. Indeed, Fry’s son wrote in the New York Times Book Review that he considers his father to have been gay, based on what he remembers overhearing and seeing. The novel imagines what Fry’s relationships might have been like, putting his connection with Grant at its heart. Grant had vanished from Fry’s life years earlier, as Fry was growing closer to Eileen, whom he would marry. Now, on his arrival in Marseilles, he receives a note from Grant requesting a meeting. Fry, in the paranoid atmosphere of the time, suspects a trap. But he meets and tries to help Grant in his mission, the two growing close again, and he wonders what a life with Grant might be like. Toward the novel’s end, a twist occurs with one of the people they rescue that brings back all of Fry’s distrust and feelings of betrayal, leaving the relationship in danger.

         The novel captures all the peril that people who tried to help refugees during this time must have encountered. Fry arrives in Marseilles as the on-the-ground leader of the Emergency Rescue Committee, armed with a list of roughly 200 hundred “valuable” people who should be rescued. A classicist by training and a journalist by career, he has no experience in this sort of work and expects to stay a month, but he remains there for about a year. Although he has an ally in the American consulate who does what he can to help, the chief diplomat makes Fry’s work nearly impossible, following the American government’s policy of noninvolvement. Washington even cables an official disavowal of any connection to or cooperation with Fry. French police frequently drag him in for questioning. Before Marshall Petain visits Marseilles, Fry and several hundred other “suspicious” residents are rounded up and detained in various improvised prisons, including a ship. Fry works with gangsters and black marketeers to forge identity and travel documents and to develop escape routes. Even Fry’s own organization lets him down, sending a blowhard journalist and his secretary to replace him. Orringer keeps the tension high, as the situation changes constantly, and what worked one day fails the next.

         The novel is filled with real-life famous characters, from Marc Chagall, whom Fry tries to convince to leave at the beginning, to André Gide, who reveals his plan to stay in Vichy and subvert the regime through his writings. The Surrealist artists stay with Fry in his Villa Air Bel, throwing fabulous parties with limited resources and making art. The novel’s title comes from a collection of works by refugee artists created to raise funds and awareness. Reading like a literary thriller, The Flight Portfolio blends fact and fiction to tell a moving, powerful story. Given the charged situation regarding refugees today, it seems an appropriate reminder that a gay man risked everything to help people similarly in distress.

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