"Alda Merini (Milan 1931 - 2009) was one of the most famous Italian poets. She has received awards like the Librex-Guggenheim for poetry (1996) and that of the Premiership (1999). The Easy Life was first published in 1996 by Bompiani.

"Merini is like an iceberg, hiding everything beneath the surface, managing to say so much with so little. It's probably not fair of me to say that her way of writing just doesn't work for me 80% of the time, because it could be my brain and method of understanding that is at fault rather than her way of writing. Yet that's precisely what I'll say. For me, 'The Easy Life' is unobtainable, inaccessible; but there is genuine emotion in its pages, and I would be very interested in reading more of Merini's work to see if that proves more easily within my reach." -- Luke, Goodreads

"The World of Alda Merini, Neither Prose, Nor Poetry', in Il Corriere della Sera.Merini's astounding ability of mixing up words obscure in appearance with concrete feelings, devilish images with heavenly passages, defeats evil (that of the mind too) and gives back to us, on the page, where any sense of logic seems gone, the meaning of life [the meaning of life back to us, in writings that seem to escape any sense of logic]. It is hard to remain indifferent in the face of her observations." -- Maurizio Bonassina