Crossing Wyoming

What if there were a historian whose familiarity with history was actually the result of his having been a time-traveler, who was not only present at the events he recorded but an integral actor in them? That is the amusing conceit of this refreshing fantasy by Romtvedt ( Free and Compulsory for All ). The Latin American historian Eduardo Galeano--or don Eduardo as he is called here--skips back and forth through history as easily as a reader might flip though the pages of a book. He begins as a simple seaman on the ship that first brought horses to the New World in 1493 and ends by encountering the horse's ancient ancestor, the eohippus. In between, he appears as Joseph Epes Brown, the historian who recorded Black Elk's story of the sacred pipe, and as Rosa Parks and Malcolm X; he interviews Sitting Bull and is present during the Mexican Revolution. As don Eduardo traverses not only centuries but geography as well, Romvedt brings us politically correct good fun, giving minorities a sympathetic, revisionist historical treatment. (Dec.)