Fabulous Nobodies: A Novel About a Girl Who's in Love With Her Clothes [Paperback]

Lee Tulloch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1990

Before Bridget Jones, Carrie Bradshaw, and the Shopaholic, it was a world of Fabulous Nobodies

Now, back in print after fifteen years, it’s your chance to experience this hysterically wild cult-status novel for the first time.

Get ready to meet:

Reality Nirvana Tuttle
A self-described "doorwhore" at one of Manhattan’s hottest clubs. She never gets up before 2 P.M. and has vivid, two-way conversations with every dress in her closet.

Hugo "A Go-Go" Falk
Gossip columnist and documenter of all things fabulous in the fashion scene. This man is the key to turning Reality into a true Somebody.

Phoebe Johnson
Junior shoe editor of Perfect Woman magazine who has dedicated her life to looking like Audrey Hepburn—and the one woman Reality can trust with her frocks.

and Freddie Barnstable
A transvestite with an uncanny knack for finding fabulous fashions, and his sidekick, a little dog named Cristobal Balenciaga. These Fabulous Nobodies will take you on a quest to be Truly Somebody, in a city long gone but never to be forgotten: New York City of the 1980s.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Life is cruel to people who aren't fabulous," sniffs 20-year-old Manhattanite Reality Nirvana Tuttle. In this lighthearted yet devastatingly accurate and witty social satire, former fashion editor Tulloch parodies hip young New Yorkers like Reality whose lives revolve around superficialities--wearing the right outfits, patronizing the in clubs, socializing with the right people and becoming "fabulous." Fashion is sublime to narrator Reality, who names each of her "frocks" and sports a tattoo of the Chanel logo. As the "doorwhore" at a trendy nightclub called Less Is More, she haughtily decides who is garbed bizarrely enough to merit admittance. Outrageous '60s chic usually wins approval; demurely clad Jackie Onassis is unceremoniously banished. When she isn't working or scheming to get herself into Frenzee magazine, Reality cavorts with an editor of Perfect Woman who slavishly emulates the gamin look of Audrey Hepburn, and with a transvestite who owns a dog named Cristobal Balenciaga. Tulloch's cutting humor suffuses every detail, though she imparts a noteworthy message: celebrity, like its arbiters and opulent symbols, is vacuous, transient and pathetically overrated.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Cute title. Even cuter prose. Reality Nirvana Tuttle is every baby-boomer parent's nightmare: a child with no redeeming social consciousness whatsoever--though she knows what to wear when with whom. Reality's mother is an ex-hippie who gave birth to a child who has names for all of her "frocks." In fact she is closer to her clothes than to people. Reality has the perfect job for a person whose life is her wardrobe: she decides who gets into the Less Is More Club, a trendy New York City nightclub, a job more commonly known as "Doorwhore." Though the novel is peopled with some eccentric characters, it all just goes on and on without much point. The first-person narrative gets cutesier and cutesier and is really more self-conscious than anything else and eventually grates. Even on a comic level, it's hard to care about someone so shallow and vapid.
- Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Lib., Seaside, Cal.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (May 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060973188
• ISBN-13: 978-0060973186
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,026,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Once Is Not Enough!, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fabulous Nobodies (Hardcover)

Fabulous Nobodies is the definitive eighties club culture novel.

Everyone that I know who has read it, has fallen head over heels in love with Reality - the fabulous nobody doorwhore, who desperately styles herself into a fabulous somebody.

A brilliantly written, inspirational novel that you will treasure and read over and over again.

Can't wait for Miss Tulloch's follow up.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Carrie Bradshaw circa 1989, April 14, 2007

By 

LZ "lz" (Poughkeepsie, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fabulous Nobodies (Paperback)

Are you curious about the life of Carrie Bradshaw before she became the successful columnist with a penchant for designer clothes and $450 shoes? If you answered "Yes!" then you need to read this book. The story of Reality Nirvana Tuttle is, without a doubt, an unintended pre-quel to Sex and the City.

Ignore what the woman from Library Journal has to say! I'm certain that she's the wrong demographic to understand the social relevance of this story. Fabulous Nobodies is funny, earnest, so very New York City in the late 1980s, and, for those of us who were in our 20s during that time, a wonderfully fun trip down memory lane. If you can remember when in was possible to rent an apartment in alphabet city for $350 month and have a tub in your kitchen then you'll appreciate this story. If you can remember scouring Goodwill, Sal's Boutique, and vintage clothing shops with your meager earnings from a club, record store, or underground publication then you'll appreciate this story. If you can remember life before the internet and came of age at a time when local fanzines and arts newspapers were the ruling social arbiters then you'll appreciate this story.

Lee Tulloch's book is a completely captivating snapshot of a place, time, and people who no longer exist except in our scrapbooks and collected memorabilia.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!, October 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fabulous Nobodies: A Novel About a Girl Who's in Love With Her Clothes (Paperback)

I saw this book at a used book store up in maine, and i picked it up on a whim - i couldn't put it down until I'd read the entire thing, TWICE! This is one of my favorite books of all time. Incredibly funny and witty, an easy read and a good time.