Enigmatic: The Crossing by Andrew Miller

In The Crossing by Andrew Miller, almost everyone projects their own fantasies or expectations onto a woman who’s the female version of the strong, silent hero.

Before reading The Crossing by British author Andrew Miller, I hadn’t realized the extent to which the introverted archetype of a “strong, silent person” in our collective Western consciousness is gendered. In films, novels and everyday life, a man who can be described as “the strong, silent type” is usually considered in a positive light and indeed as a prime candidate for a hero.

However, in Andrew Miller’s 2015 novel, The Crossing, almost no one knows what to make of Maud Stamp, an imperturbable woman who is a brilliant, reserved scientist and an avid sailor. Others in her world project many kinds of meanings onto her, viewing her as either alluring or suspicious and disquieting. The novel doesn’t make this point, but I believe it’s clear that they would not regard her this way had she been a man.