An Excess Male

A Novel

By: Maggie Shen King

Narrated by: James Chen, Tim Chiou, Elaine Kao

Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

From debut author Maggie Shen King, An Excess Male is the chilling dystopian tale of politics, inequality, marriage, love, and rebellion, set in a near-future China, that further explores the themes of the classics The Handmaid's Tale and When She Woke.

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 has created a society overrun by 40 million unmarriageable men. By the year 2030, more than 25 percent of men in their late 30s will not have families of their own. 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 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 to 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 looks to explore the intersection of marriage, family, gender, and state in an all-too-plausible future.

©2017 Maggie Shen King (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Dystopian Novel: set in China

Interesting look into a dystopian future of China. Reminds one of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
Thought provoking in many ways: government, populations, families, acceptance of people who are different.

Decent

Was a pretty good book had to listen to it for a class and write a paper that was about the only thing that brought the experience down for me. that and it's not what I typically get into.

Non stop read

I could not put this book down, this was a book that I started In the early part of the day, and at 3:30 in the morning I finished it. It was really engrossing and absorbing and all those words that mean you got sucked into a book and can put it away

Worth the listen

Not my typical style… but it was a great book. Kept my interest and made me think about how easily this could be reality.

Interesting Family Dynamic

I came across this book on Audible and was going through the reviews. I came across a review that rated this book poorly and stated that this was an awful book about “Chinese Sex.” That got me curious enough to want to read this book. What I’ve learned after reading/listening to this book was that the sex was the same as any race or culture. What I didn’t expect was a great storyline and well developed characters. If you want to read something different from the norm, this is the book.

Enjoyable

Ms. Shen King's book draws the listener into a creatively imagined near future China resulting from China's one child policy. Her use of multiple points of view help the listener understand and empathize with the diverse characters struggling against the state to become a family. Her book is both an engaging tale and reflective on the nature of family and the acceptance of others.

Imaginative tale with unexpected twists

This was a fantastic story with complicated but relate-able characters. I did not want it to end. I loved some of the characters from the start and others grew on me over time. The narration was very good but the chapter headings also helped you know who was talking. I am hoping there is a next book with or without these characters. Maggie is a great story-teller!

1984 in China, with More Hopefulness

The story takes place in a very realistic, near-future Chinese surveillance state. From what I understand about the current political and cultural climate, state control of citizen professional and social activities in this book are not far from, and in part a result of the real-life 1-child Chinese policy that produced a gender imbalance as families took measures to ensure their one and only baby would be male. Thus the title and the circumstances that lead to the familial conceit at the center of this story.

The author does a great job describing the insidious and complicated effects of total state control over its citizenry. Sexual and gender roles are examined as the extreme pressure of the state’s policy’s drive the characters in to unnatural and alternately diminished and hyper-active sexual states of mind and being. The actual sex scenes are very human and authentic feeling (considering the damaged state of each character) which is a true rarity in speculative fiction.

Characters are well drawn and developed. As the story and the stakes progress, characters learn and grow in ways very aligned with the facts of their nature. This causes the reader to acknowledge and question some assumptions about human behavior and personality types. This is also a rare and valuable accomplishment by the author.

While I appreciate the author’s hopefulness and apparent belief that technology (in the correct hands) can aid in the resistance of social and digital authoritarianism, I’m not sure I share these feelings. This created an air of unreality and a false comfort toward the end of this book that I didn’t quite understand or appreciate as much as the overall writing craft and themes within this book.

Finally, the multi-voice narration was extremely well done.

I recommend this book highly. The plot concerns do not outweigh my appreciation for the artistry and intellect on display in the Excess Make.

Exactly the opposite of what was promised

This may have been the worst book I have ever read / listened to. Ever. It's basically about Chinese sex.

Boring

Didn't finish reading this book. Not my cup of tea. I would not recommend it to anyone.