Her first husband seems to be a very strong athlete and how random that he ran one way in the avalanche and the two that ran the other way survived. 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.

I am just over halfway done, and perhaps when I finish, I will have a better taste in my mouth for Alex, who this book is written for. 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.

This is a bitter sweet memoir of Jennifer Lowe-Anker's life with her professional mountain climber husband.

You don't have to be a climber or even an outdoors person to like this book, but considering the other reviews I've read, I am seemingly in the minority about the effect this book has on me. 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.It gave me an introduction to the human side of Alex Lowe - how he made friends everywhere he went in addition to his mountaineering feats and his love for his family and his desire to make a better life for them. Unfortunately – and I think this comes back to the quality of the writing – there wasn’t much self-reflection in this story.

As Jon Krakauer wrote in the book's introduction, "Forget Me Not is more than a biography of one of the world's most talented climbers. The best part of this memoir, is seeing Jennifer's honest, and soul-wrenching perspective, as she recounts their earlier struggles, their beautiful moments together, long-lasting moments of regret, the pain and sorrow of loss, and her rebirth as she struggles to make sense of it all, while honoring Alex's legacy and ensuring her children had the support, love, and strength to carry on without him. I picked up this book by chance - I love mountaineering and so had heard of Jenni, and Alex, and Conrad, but didn't realize Jenni had written a book until I happened across an interview with Conrad where he mentioned it. He accomplished a lot and after his death, Jen tries keeping all the memories, tracing his steps and fills in the gap for her 3 sons. 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.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 read this as a frequent reader of climbing literature, but one could read it just as easily without that background.

Jennifer Lowe-Anker achieves what she sets out to do - painting a portrait of her late first husband, Alex Lowe, in a way that ensures who he was is captured and never forgotten. Alex, however, continued to explore the world as a guide and professional climber, to Yosemite, Denali, K2, Everest, Antarctica, the Himalaya, Baffin Island, the Great Trango Tower, Kyrgyzstan and beyond, all while Jennifer took care of their three sons, Max, Sam and Isaac.This book is in some ways a great counterbalance to the hard-hitting, snow-blustering, life-on-the-edge titles that make up the mountaineering/adventuring literary genre - or at least, the impression the reading public (and corporate public, who just loves a good alpine analogy for success) gets of the industry and genre. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. At the same time Alex's best friend, famed climber Conrad Anker, was dealing with the terrible loss as well as feelings of survivor's guilt. In all, this was a lovely memoir, poignant and plain-spoken, and carried something like a luminous sweetness that's hard to describe. They endured long separations so Alex could work as a professional climber while Jenni stayed home writing, painting, and raising their sons.