[...] Madame S is certainly not alone in the usual sense of the word. She lives with a man, and the couple have two young children. Soon it becomes apparent that the same traits of character for which she reproaches her partner have made him her indispensable support: the way he shuts down before acknowledging moods and interior conflicts, his operative pragmatism, his univocal relationship to language, his unambiguousness, his firm and militant resolution. He is almost unreachable, which gives rise to hatred but makes of him a reliable partner: he is a rock, ne varietur. [...]