Suddenly God seems to be in style these days. Everybody is out looking for Him, as if He had not been absent for some time. The latest in the list of what one might call suppliants is David Plante, author of [The Family,] a new rather dreary book about a large French Catholic family…. Although this is a sixth novel, it has many of the earmarks of a first, particularly in its awkward exposition….

Part of the problem is that Mr. Plante has given himself an awful lot to explain. There is the father, a foreman at a file shop, a difficult and demanding man who fancies himself a big shot; a menopausal mother always on the verge of a breakdown; a great aunt, a grandmother and seven sons…. There are endless soliloquies, confrontations, arrivals and departures. But the real problem is that with all this detail, so...