"Somewhere around the age of 12, I suddenly realized my family was going straight to Hell, all five of them, and that it was up to me to do something about it." Thus speaks Regine, the narrator of Penny Howson's sprightly and charming memoir of a French childhood. Fresh from her first communion, Regine zealously tackles the problem of Godlessness in her Parisian family. But her progress on behalf of le Bon Dieu is slow. Her father is preoccupied only with the fluctuations of Anaconda copper stock and the dreadful effect of the new Metro line on his wine cellar. Her grandmother, Boma,...