Imagine a time before reality television and social media influencers. Imagine a time when the likes of Carrie Bradshaw and her coterie of sex and fashion obsessed pals were merely a gleam in Candace Bushnell’s eyes. It’s the late 1980s. New York City is teaming with the hippest and hottest clubs-Danceteria, Palladium, Limelight, and Club 57. The clubs are teeming with the young, hip, and fashionable, many of them yearning to be famous.
One of these people is Reality Nirvana Tuttle (yes, her mother is a hippie). In Lee Tulloch’s 1989 novel, Fabulous Nobodies, Reality is currently working as a “door whore” at lower Manhattan’s latest, hippest club, Less is More. Reality’s job is to only allow people in the club who meet her exacting standards. They must have the best style and a unique flair.
Reality is only 20 years old. She escaped her upper New York small town and her mother’s hippie lifestyle to live among the coolest people she can find in New York City. Her friend, Phoebe Johnson emulates Audrey Hepburn and is the junior shoe editor at “Perfect Woman” magazine. Freddie Barnstable is a transvestite (transgender by today’s vernacular). Freddie is always on the hunt for the perfect fashion find and has a dog named Balenciaga. And then there is Hugo Falk, a gossip columnist with the magazine “Frenzee.”
Reality lives for fashion, and has a collection of designer frocks that she has named after famous people and characters-Petula Clark, Gina Lollabrigida, and so on. Not only does she have a collection of designer frocks, Reality also talks to these frocks as if they are cherished friends. However, there is something missing from her clothes closet, and that’s a Chanel suit. How Reality can afford her designer duds is never fully explained. She can’t make much money as a door whore at Less is More. But there is talk of her shopping at some vintage stores that dot her Manhattan neighborhood.
Reality has another desire. She wants to be famous? But how do you got about this before a time of reality show stars like the Kardashians or taking up precious internet space as a fashion influencer? Reality figures she can cozy up to Hugo Falk and he’ll write about her for his column in “Frenzee.”
But of course, things don’t go quite smoothly. Reality loses her job at Less is More when she doesn’t recognize Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and denies her entry into the club. Completely forlorn and at a loss, Reality is convinced by Freddie that they should turn their apartments into a club. Despite this probably being illegal, they turn their apartments into a club, which attracts the fabulous and fabulous adjacent.
Other things happen, too. Reality’s friendship with Phoebe is tested. Reality finds the elusive Chanel suit of her dreams, but is a Chanel suit really her? Reality acquires an admirer/stalker named Brooke. A bit of a mishap occurs while people are partying at her and Freddie’s club, which really puts a damper on things.
And then Hugo interviews and writes a piece about Reality for “Frenzee” magazine. Unfortunately, this feature on Reality isn’t exactly flattering, and a very weird encounter with Hugo jostles Reality a wee bit.
In the end, Fabulous Nobodies is a satirical look at a very specific time. Reality never shows much growth as a character, but then again she’s only 20. I was left wondering where Reality would be in the 2020s. She’d now be in her fifties. Would she have gotten married, left Manhattan for the suburbs, had a bunch of kids, and was just an average middle aged woman with a crazy past? Would she have become a fashion influencer, showing off her frocks and interviewing them on her Instagram page? Would she have ended up on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City?” Who knows? But Fabulous Nobodies certainly showcases the huge desire people have for being famous no matter what…and the perfect Chanel suit, of course.
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