An Excess Maleby Maggie Shen KingImagine a world where you could only have one child. Where adult me

An Excess Male

by Maggie Shen King

Imagine a world where you could only have one child. Where adult men significantly outnumber adult women to the point that a quarter of men are forced into bachelorhood. Where there are penalties for multiple children, homosexuality, large dogs, and defying the government.

Perhaps the scariest part of it all is: you don’t have to imagine at all.

Fact: China’s one-child policy was introduced in 1979 and was only altered in 2016. While some argue the family planning initiative had its desired effect of decreasing population growth, others argue that the population growth would have slowed naturally anyway. The “excess” consequences of the policy however, resulted in the abortion and abandonment of less-desirable girls and an aging population of “excess” men. Not to mention the surplus of second and third children who were not recognized by the state as citizens. Parents discovered to have more than one child were often dismissed from work and heavily fined. Many unregistered children still exist who are unable to obtain an education or even ID. (For more information, check out this news story from Time:http://time.com/4598999/china-one-child-policy-family-planning/)

That is the nonfiction part.

Enter Maggie Shen King’s addictive novel An Excess Male where we meet 40-something bachelor Wei-guo who has just become eligible for matchmaking services. With such a disproportionate number of males, the policy of Family Advancement has been introduced, and each woman may marry three men, and mother three children, one from each. Wei-guo, escorted by his two fathers (the product of such an “advanced” household) meets May-ling, her two peculiar husbands - who are incidentally brothers - and their irascible son, Bei-Bei.  So ensues a very unique courtship under the watchful eye of an ever-imposing government.

Told from four alternating and enjoyably distinctive perspectives, it’s part sci-fi, part love story, part bromance, part thriller. Don’t be fooled by its seeming domestic trappings. There is a Middle Kingdom real life battle club for bachelors, an anti-social brilliant hacker, and a highly secretive underground gay circuit. In fact, two-thirds of the way through, King’s twists so jolted me I reread the page and stayed up until the wee hours to learn Wei-guo’s fate.

That is the fiction part.

The problem is: they aren’t so far apart.