by François Nourissier. Knopf, $6.95. This survey of a nation is not as amusing as Barzini’s The Italians, with which it will certainly be compared. It is a faintly melancholy description of France as a country subject to exceptionally violent tension between static tradition and progressive innovation. Since the text gives no hint of imminent explosion, one is inclined to take all of the author’s interpretations with caution.