Forget Me Not: A Memoir

This memoir by Jennifer Lowe-Anker is a tribute to her late husband, Alex Lowe, considered by many to be one of the best climbers in the world at the time of his death. This is a love story and Jennifer shares their blossoming relationship, marriage, and family life with three sons in great detail. I couldn't help thinking what a wonderful gift this book is to her children. A climber herself, she understands her husband's deep need to push himself in the outdoors, but while motherhood calmed those urgings in herself, Alex was forever caught between his passion for the mountains and his deep love and loyalty to his family. While those on the outside may never understand this lifestyle, Jennifer shows what it means to love someone as they are, although she certainly wasn't always happy that he frequently spent months away from home. When Alex is lost in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999, she holds nothing back in sharing her grief, but also the healing. Her involvement with Conrad Anker, Alex's best friend and also a world-renowned climber, is also addressed. She and Conrad would marry and he would help raise Alex's sons. Perhaps only together could the two of them heal their grief over losing a man they both loved so much. I'm indebted to Ms. Lowe-Anker for sharing the stories of her life with Alex. His was a unique spirit, gone too soon.

It was wonderful to read a book where the wife so well understands the love and the need of her husband to have time to be out in the wild, climbing, climbing and climbing even though it takes him away from her and their three boys. She admits that she, too, needs time. They shared a great love, strong together and when they were apart. Their correspondence was inspiring to read. Parts were difficult to get through. But love trumps all. I highly recommend this book.

Jennifer Lowe-Anker has done an amazing job of telling the story of her life and a good part of Alex's life as well. Being married to the alpinist Alex Lowe, she tells first hand of what life is like for the ones who are left behind when one leaves for the high ranges of the world. The thoughts are always there of their loved one not returning and Jennifer knows more than well the risks and rewards of relationships with adventurers.What is special about Jen's story is that she tells it with a passion that few can achieve. There are parts of this book where you will feel the loneliness Jen feels as well as the times where you will smile along with the charactors in the story.Jennifer did a good job of telling her story for all to enjoy so one does not need to be a climber to understand some of the terminology used in climbing.There are some parts of this book that contain diary notes of their son Max and his writing is exceptional for a young man.I read this book on Kindle and was glad that there were pictures to put a face to ones not familiar with. Would recommend this book to a friend.

I must admit that I jumped on the bandwagon to read this memoir after they found Alex. Jenny does a great job of writing about him, his career, his job struggles, his personality, his internal conflicts between climbing and family, and the evolution of their relationship, as well as her own personal journey as the wife of a serious climber, mother of three, and talented artist. After his death, it's easy to see why she falls in love with Conrad as well. The story is deeply personal and funny at times. Like any good book, I was left thinking about it for days after I'd finished.

From the reviews -- and even, if taken out of context, a sentence or two in Krakauer's forward -- I had to assume this was some sort of angry or at least pitiable self portrait of a woman abandoned in life and death by her selfish climber husband. Or, perhaps, it would be a regrettable story of an obsessed, stupid, unloving climber who finally got out of the way of his family's happiness.It is neither, to my eyes. This book is a beautiful but realistic love story. Lowe-Anker's writing about her late husband is the portrait of an intensely focused person who struggled but mostly found a way to live and love outside of the mountains that kept him sane. And it is the story of a couple that each found commercial and personal success in their respective obsessions, following years of struggling as a young couple of unconventional career aspirations on both sides. When commercial success came to the climber, it obligated him to commercial trips, first guiding and then sponsored trips. At the time of his unfortunate end, the story is that of this couple struggling to reconcile their respective needs for fulfillment and employment with Lowe's frequent absences. For a couple with that big issue to overcome, though, they seem by Lowe-Anker's recounting to have had a deeper and more passionate relationship than a good number of couples whose relative lack of passion for life gives them more time together.Lowe-Anker writes wonderfully, and she includes here a good deal of the writing of the late Lowe, enough to see he had a deep appreciation for life, for her and for their children, not just for climbing (he also had a great gift for writing expressively and intelligently). She is a serious climber herself (or was; as she states, parenthood increased her drive for self preservation), and she conveys clearly the concepts necessary to understand the climbing stories she relays. I read this as a frequent reader of climbing literature, but one could read it just as easily without that background.This book is well worth the read for any number of reasons: if you climb, if you know someone who climbs, if you know and can't understand someone who is the 12-cups-of-coffee-per-day-can't-sit-still-must-achieve-something type, if you love Bozeman, if you read any and all climbing books, or if you want to read a touching story of two strong people making their way through the world together.

I started climbing in 2012 and stumbled upon this book at the library. It is a well told first person memoir. I bought it finally for myself this year. I'm looking forward to reading it again. A beautiful telling of love, loss, adventure, and moving forward.

Incredibly well written book. Lovely memoir and full of inspiration.

Wonderfully written, fascinating life.

Great book written by a very strong and dedicated woman. It takes a lot of self-abnegation to share the life of a mountaineer. Jon Krakauer only wrote the foreword, why is he cited as co-author ?