Kenzaburo Oe’s 1964 novel, “A Personal Matter,” follows a young father as he contemplates killing his infant son, who was born with a brain hernia. In the feverish days after the birth, the father, known as Bird, embarks on a sex and alcohol-filled bender, fueled in part by shame and self-loathing.

Readers on Amazon and Goodreads call “A Personal Matter” “harrowing,” “disturbing,” and “agonizing.” Jonathan Franzen calls it funny. “‘How do I get out of this?’ is the paramount question throughout,” he says. “It’s an inherently...