Julie Orringer's THE FLIGHT PORTFOLIO" WWII Historic Biopic Fiction that Fails

"The Flight Portfolio" is historic fiction based on American journalist Varian Fry who clandestinely worked to help many prominent Jews flee from German occupied France.  Julie Orringer award winning author of "The Invisible Bridge" selected a historic figure whose saved thousands of Jews escape the Nazi in the 1940s.  In doing so, Fry has been named by Israel as the Righteous Among the Nations; an honorary title bestowed non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.  Fry is a name that's mainly lost to history along with the names of numerous prominent Jewish artists, writers and scientists.  Fry's courageous operations to save those who were regarded as "irreplaceable treasure" must be measured to "matter more than others, those men and women; they had to be brighter manifestations of light."  Not to diminish Fry's heroism but not to consider the onerous task of placing a higher value on one life over another. "Fry's list" is comprised of numerous names that are poorly regaled through history:  Breitscheid, Hilferding, Breton, Feuchtwanger and Zilberman.  Other artists on Fry's list more familiar would be Max Ernst, Mac Chagall and Jacques Lipchitz.  Fry's mission, which saved lives speaks for the millions who weren't given top priority to protect because they didn't register as part of the "European cultural pantheon." Still, Orringer may have written a stirring novel about the desperate measures and harrowing escapes but the novel remains a tepid tale of covert operations to transport Jews to safety.  The element in Orringer's story that arose vigor was the fictitious homosexual love affair between Fry and Grant.  Grant was Fry's lover while students at Harvard and their paths cross 12 years later when Grant contacts Fry in France to help his lover cross safely into Spain.  Fry describes their tryst at a time when all efforts should have been directed to saving lives as "another reality, one without war or rules or wives; they had gotten there by some alchemical magic."  Unfortunately, the Nazis were invading foreign countries and exterminating millions and the concealed passion does further collateral damage to noteworthy historic individuals and events.  "The Flight Portfolio" uncovers consequential events and distinguished artists imperiled during WWII.  Regrettably, this ambitious work shares the same soaring flight as Icarus and suffers the same disastrous fate.