Thomas Bernhard - where's a good place to start?

In the past the author Thomas Bernhard has drawn admiring & sometimes enthusiastic comment here on I Love Books. I've read nothing of his and understand that his work may not be quite in my line, but I'm considering giving his work a tryout.

I will now throw open the floor to the question, which, if any, of his books would you consider a good place for me to start? If you'd prefer to dissuade me from him, based on your estimate of how I'd react to his work, that's OK, too.

i loved Old Masters. i should read some more of his. the impression i get is they're all very similar.

I don't know about where to start but Woodcutters is great.

The Loser, Woodcutters and Old Masters form a kind of trilogy, not that any plot or character repeats, but they are more or less the variations on the same book... That's probably his 'major' work, as far as I know. His autobiographical quintology - An Indication of the Cause, The Cellar, Breath, In the Cold, A Child - is presumably then the place to go, although I've honestly never made it through them.

my favs are correction and the loser; both quite brutal and oppressive reads however, the latter especially stayed in my head for weeks after finishing it

My start was Old Masters, just before the pandemic. Kept going from that point.

I feel like where you start doesn't matter. It's all so insane and has such depth that you have to start somewhere but where seems not so important.

Woodcutters is the funniest book ever, I declare from my wing chair

Woodcutters is the funniest book ever, I declare from my wing chair

It is hilarious and ends on a curiously upbeat note that you don't see coming!

Agree it kind of doesn't matter where you start. The Loser, Concrete, Woodcutters. I think Extinction is my favorite, and maybe his best, and it's the longest, I might save that for last or once you have a few under your belt.

Thanks y'all for the help. The Woodcutters is at my public library and it'll find a place in the queue before the New Year.

I think I'll give it a go too.

Correction was my first. Old Masters has a moment where he refers to a dead partner iirc (was written after his partner died) which is unexpected and sorta touching. Gives it a different feel to anything else.

Off the autobiography I think only Extinction has been translated to English.