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An Excess Male: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Maggie Shen King (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 595 ratings
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“Thoughtful, heartbreaking . . . King expertly explores the myriad routes to family, hope, and love in a repressive country.” —Publishers Weekly

Under the One Child Policy, everyone plotted to have a son.

Now 40 million of them can't find wives.

China’s One Child Policy and its cultural preference for male heirs have created a society overrun by unmarriageable men. An Excess Male is one such leftover man’s quest for love and family under a State that seeks to glorify its past mistakes and impose order through authoritarian measures, reinvigorated Communist ideals, and social engineering.

Wei-guo holds fast to the belief that as long as he continues to improve himself, his chance at love will come. He finally saves up the dowry required to enter matchmaking talks at the lowest rung as a third husband—the maximum allowed by law. Only a single family shows interest, yet with May-ling and her two husbands, Wei-guo feels seen, heard, and connected like never before. But everyone and everything—walls, streetlights, garbage cans—are listening, and men, excess or not, are dispensable to the State. Wei-guo must test the limits of his love and his resolve in order to save himself and this family he has come to hold dear.

“King writes distinctive and sympathetic characters, and her vision of a not-so-far future is unnerving and thought-provoking.” —The Washington Post

“Disturbing, funny, suspenseful and keenly observed.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“The Handmaid’s Tale of a new generation.” —Peter Clines, author of Paradox Bound and The Fold

“Provocative . . . An intelligent, incisive commentary on how love survives—or doesn't—under the heel of the State.” —Kirkus Reviews
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  1. Print length
    417 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Harper Voyager
  5. Publication date
    September 12, 2017
  6. File size
    2739 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Maggie Shen King has a great gift not only for creating a complicated, futuristic world but also for creating characters who win our hearts and minds. An Excess Male is a wonderfully inventive and wonderfully funny novel.

-- "Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author"

Thoughtful, heartbreaking...King expertly explores the myriad routes to family, hope, and love in a repressive country.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

King imagines a frightening reality, in which forced cultural norms run counter to basic human rights, leaving readers exceedingly uncomfortable with its feasibility.

-- "Booklist"

King brings us a uniquely interesting, dystopian read...With her sharp, distinctive storytelling and vivid characters, readers will be drawn into the complex plot.

-- "RT Book Reviews (4 stars)"

Provocative...An intelligent, incisive commentary on how love survives-or doesn't-under the heel of the State.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

A believable near-future vision of what could happen with China's growing gender imbalance.

-- "Library Journal"

From the Back Cover

China’s one-child policy and its cultural preference for male heirs have created a society overrun by forty million unmarriageable men. By the year 2030, more than 25 percent of men in their late thirties will not have a family of their own. An Excess Male is the story of one such leftover man’s quest for love and family under a State that seeks to glorify its past mistakes and impose order through authoritarian measures, reinvigorated communist ideals, and social engineering.

Wi-guo holds fast to the belief that as long as he continues to improve himself, his small business, and, in turn, his country, his chance at love will come. He finally saves up the dowry required to enter matchmaking talks at the lowest rung, as a third husband—the maximum allowed by law. Only a single family—one harboring an illegal spouse—shows interest, yet with May-ling and her two husbands, Wei-guo feels seen, heard, and connected like never before. But everyone and everything—walls, streetlights, garbage cans—are listening, and men, excess or not, are dispensable to the State. Wei-guo must reach a new understanding of patriotism and test the limits of his love and his resolve in order to save himself and this family he has come to hold dear.

In Maggie Shen King’s startling and beautiful debut, An Excess Male explores the intersection of marriage, family, gender, and state in an all-too-plausible future.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N4FLQYU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager (September 12, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 12, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2739 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 417 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0062662554
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 595 ratings

About the author

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Maggie Shen King

Maggie Shen King

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Maggie Shen King is the author of An Excess Male (Harper Voyager), a Washington Post Top 5 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel of 2017, a James Tiptree Jr., and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. She is Goodreads September 2017 featured debut author. Her short stories have appeared in the New York Times, Ecotone, ZYZZYVA, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and Fourteen Hills. Her manuscript Fortune's Fools, won Second Prize in Amazon's 2012 Breakthrough Novel Award.

Her previously published short stories are available on her website MaggieShenKing.com.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
595 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Connie
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book Club Choice!
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
I thoroughly enjoyed Maggie Shen-King’s An Excess Male! This futuristic story gives a glimpse into a world where marital relationships require very different norms than we are used to in our current society. The author has created characters that feel very real and complex, each struggling to find a balance between a harmonious family life and also satisfying their own personal desires. I felt such heartbreak and compassion for the characters, each sacrificing, in their own way, for the greater good of their family unit. I enjoyed hearing the various voices of each character, they are written with such detail and unique emotions that ring true. The complex relationships in An Excess Male were both foreign and yet very similar to those in traditional marriages where the struggle for control also exists. Although it is set to take place in the future, it felt very relevant and easy to imagine taking place in the near future, especially in China where the shortage of women is a well known disturbing fact.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in a book club. It has numerous thought provoking discussion topics and is sure to satisfy a wide audience of readers. I look forward to reading more books by this author!
5 people found this helpful
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David
4.0 out of 5 stars The sheer lack of resources and low level of wealth depicted seem more like the China of twenty years past
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2018
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As a story, quite engaging; as a look at a possible future for China, less so.

Certain aspects of the society shown in the novel ring true; the insertion of the Party into every aspect of life and commerce, the near-omnipresent electronic surveillance, and the rampant corruption hiding in plain sight.

Others, however, seem less realistic. The sheer lack of resources and low level of wealth depicted seem more like the China of twenty years past, not twenty years from now. There seems to be no reason why a 19-story building in Beijing would ever lack an elevator no matter how low-end, for example. The medical establishment, while characterized by long lines and waits, is entirely up to the task of delivering 40 million physicals a year as well. I also find the attitudes of the government towards homosexuality and feminism puzzling, at best, as even modern-day China has in many ways moved beyond the attitudes shown in the book.

One thing which was thought-provoking were the numerous references to the government and Party extensively legislating morality, from requiring married women to visit their homes each year to holding aldulterers legally responsible. To some extent this is true already; in a country with few unwritten rules and a frayed social fabric, a government trying to constrain people’s behavior finds itself obliged to create written ones instead, for virtually everything.

All in all, there were some licenses taken in the name of creating a deeper dystopia, but a good read.
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Laura Werner
3.0 out of 5 stars Futuristic Chinese soap opera
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2017
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The premise of the book is quite interesting — Lee Wei-Guo is a 40 year old bachelor, one of the ~40 million extra males born during China's One Child Policy. Parents aborted females because they wanted boys who could support them in their old age.

With the help of a matchmaker, Wei-Guo finds a family willing to let him marry in as their third husband. (Yes, China has state-sanctioned polyandry in this book's future.) However the family has some flaws, and most of the book chronicles the attempts of Wei-Guo and his prospective new family to deal with the problems that come up.

I enjoyed the book's premise and characters. The resurgent communism, official homophobia, and other aspects of the state ring true. For a while, a found the travails of the family interesting. But eventually it started to feel like a soap opera (or maybe the late 70's sit-com "Soap"), and I knew there had to be another catastrophe just around the corner. For the last third or so if the book, I just wanted it to end.
7 people found this helpful
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Ellkay Kay
5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Human and Humane Story
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2018
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I enjoyed this book a great deal. I found it loving and hateful, sad and heart-warming.

Set in a China of the near-future, this novel extrapolates on current conditions in China. Two factors have already had a huge effect on Chinese childbirth. First: While a segment of the Chinese population is very well to do, the large majority works desperately hard to survive and feed their families. Most pray for sons in order to have someone to feed them when they are no longer able to work themselves. Then to combat over-population, China passed a one-child per family policy. The large fines assessed for a second pregnancy are completely affordable for the well-to-do and utterly ruinous for the majority. So prayers for sons became more desperate. Second, modern science made possible the determination of gender in a fetus. Allowed only one child and needing sons, thousands upon thousands of female fetuses have been aborted. This novel looks to the near-future when men enormously outnumber women in the population. Despite the legalization of polyandry, one quarter of the men in China have no hope for wife or family.

King explores this issue by focusing on one family, a family that is already living on the edge and relying on secrecy just to survive, and one man's hopes for marrying into it. Along the way she also takes on China's views about homosexuality and those who are mentally different from the only acceptable norm. Her characters are absolutely credible and still completely appealing. And I found the entire working out of the plot almost inevitable given just who these people are.

Please don't mistake me, however. This book is much more than a treatise on Chinese policies. It is a human and humane story of appealing people doing their very best to create the lives they need. I recommend it to all adults.
16 people found this helpful
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James LaRue
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and human
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2018
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This is my second foray into Chinese sf. The setting is thoroughly detailed, the characters deeply explored. Caught in the distant suffocation of the state, King's characters remain resolutely human. In the end, this was a very moving read.
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars This book made me late for work. TWICE.
Reviewed in Canada on March 2, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book was so engaging, twice I sat down to read just a little, and resurfaced hours later -- late for work.

I legitimately cared for and about the characters, and cringed with them as things played out. I absolutely loved this book and cannot recommend it highly enough.
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Anjelica Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book club read - a year's discussion in one book - brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2017
Verified Purchase
Books set in the future are usually off-limits for me but this one was different - it had me captivated and I couldn't wait for my bed time read. The characters were warm and alive and the ideas challenging and uplifting. The notion of state control of thought word and deed is horrific, but this book captured the indomitable human spirit of its characters and the triumph of each person using his or her talents to beat the nasty system. I loved all of the characters but the autistic and endearing XX melted my heart and made me laugh as well as cry. Please write a sequel and include XX and the charismatic W-G.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat enjoyed it
Reviewed in Canada on May 3, 2021
Verified Purchase
I was completely fascinated by this book in the beginning but the characters were somewhat flat and I did not like some of the later parts.
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mortyoh
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2019
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Wouldn't say this is 'a Handmaid's Tale for a new generation', but it's a remarkable book in its own right. Pays more emphasis on how men are affected than the women, but the stories of XX and Hann are important ones to tell as well. Just wish the book had been able to do more in sharing May-Ling's experience. Worth the read, if done with a critical eye. Still enjoyable from a reading perspective, and significant to the literary world nevertheless.
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Zarathustra
3.0 out of 5 stars Good concept
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 23, 2018
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A book that attempts a great deal. Good concept that largely works. Raises interesting questions about family and what constitutes it.
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