DREAMS OF AN IMAGINARY NEW YORKER NAMED RIZZOLI

by Mark Ciabattari ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 1990

In this playful, cinematic little work of fiction, first-timer Ciabattari conjures a hook of dreams, all involving a hapless New Yorker who acts out his hopes and fears on a nightmarish cityscape that bears an only slightly skewed relation to the real Manhattan. These 21 surreal parables of city life often begin in ordinary street-level anxieties: a graffiti artist spray-paints Rizzoli in his sleep; a mime stalks Rizzoli, mocking his cultural pretensions; a leaflet-bearer KOs passers-by (including Rizzoli) in order to make them take his flyer; a copy of the Times literally demands to be read; and the mysterious Man of Property haunts the Keatonesque dreamer (who rents) with unasked-for advice on real estate. In a comic playlette--part Beckett, part Woody Allen--Rizzoli the urban existentialist talks to God, whom he mistakes for a former NYU philosophy prof, and who explains New York life as the luck of the cosmic draw. Playing with odds can leave you a Wall St. whiz or a Bed-Stuy welfare mom. ""Mass hostility"" asserts itself when tollbooths turn up on sidewalks and the lower case drops out of everyone's speech, leaving them all to shout out their everyday concerns. But not all of Rizzoli's dreams are city-specific. Work engenders its own worries when Rizzoli dreams of reorganization--his company is run by the physically strongest, with tests to ascertain the new hierarchy. Meanwhile, Rizzoli ages rapidly, is left in the dust by his rival employee, and, in a later dream, can't manage to arrive on time. Elsewhere in dreamtime, Rizzoli unemployed becomes almost invisible to his friends, which is as bad as his grandiose fantasy of celebrity--his face on the cover of every magazine--a dream deflated by lack of recognition on the street. Of course, sex worms into his nocturnal fictions: first, a subway beauty nude to his eyes alone; later, he imagines the ultimate cab share, a recurring rendevous with true love, envisaged in mythic proportions. Twenty line illustrations by Istvan Banyai perfectly capture Rizzoli and his dream city, as conceived by Ciabattari: edgy and nervous, but amusing in a delightfully postmodern way.

Pub Date: March 27, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION