A midlife crisis, as in Oedipus's case, may be distressing; on the other hand, one may discover that an adolescent trauma has simply been delayed several decades.

Take, for example, Joseph, the school teaching hero of Jim Harrison's novel of rural Michigan, "Farmer." Joseph has been teaching 20 years in one of those small farming towns where one's private life and the talk of the town tend to be the same. Joseph has also been courting fellow teacher Rosealee since she was widowed by the Korean War. He has always had plans to marry, but the advent of gorgeous, citified Catherine in Joseph's senior class one September postpones that decision for another academic year.

Melodrama? Undoubtedly Harrison draws hollow distinctions between downtown Catherine and hometown Rosealee. But what annoys a reader most about the farmer's discoveries (marriage is a trap, women always scheme against men's tranquility) is that Harrison manages little ironic distance: Joseph's tribulations are treated with teenage seriousness.

The book does have descriptive passages, nonetheless, which flare up appealingly behind the ghost figures, such as the almost indiscernable, relentless coming on of seasons in upstate Michigan. These are the book's true touches.