Dreams of Imagination

First novelist Ciabattari brims with brio in this fanciful, cannily humorous look at the jungles of darkest Manhattan. Twenty-one brief ``dreams'' or vignettes introduce Rizzoli, a modern Everyman who tries to do his work, retain a shred of dignity and, maybe, find a little affection. But life is tough in the big city. Rizzoli's company reorganizes on the basis of physical strength: jobs are assigned via boxing matches, and Rizzoli is demoted to the mailroom. Even a copy of the New York Times bullies our hero: it turns somersaults, flies under his nose and demands to be read until its distractions cost Rizzoli his job. He then becomes such a nonentity that his own mother sends a letter saluting him as ``Dear Occupant.'' Absurdities multiply: one day Rizzoli is baffled to discover toll sidewalks--to keep companies in Manhattan, the mayor has let them buy blocks of sidewalk and charge people for treading upon them; the city cashes in, too, with its own pedestrian Thruway. First serial to New York Daily News Magazine. (Mar.)