Forget Me Not: A Memoir

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I think this background knowledge really helped me appreciate this book, and would recommend any other reader do the same. It’s a tale of love, parenthood, familial bonds, honor, integrity, struggle, tragedy and the selfishness and selflessness that are inherent in the climbing ethos. Jennifer Lowe-Anker has combined the landscapes, animals and people of her native Montana with a unique approach to painting.

I really wanted to give this book 4 stars, but I just couldn't learn to care much for Alex although I appreciated what the author has tried to do and what she herself has been through. Jennifer Lowe-Anker paints folktales, fantasies and dreamlike reveries, often set against majestic backdrops in the natural world, in a style much like Marc Chagall’s. In the tragic aftermath, with Anker grieving as much as the widowed Jennifer and her three fatherless children, the two adults fell in love.

As I went to go post this review, I was absolutely floored by some of the comments from other reviewers, stating they did not enjoy this masterpiece because they believed Alex's climbing was selfish and inconsiderate to his family, none the least, Jennifer.

I am not, nor have I ever been a climber, but it has always fascinated me, so I thought I would give this book a try. Interesting in its own right, is Jennifer’s path towards becoming an artist; she is a talented painter, and her work graces the cover of the book. Both shared a deep love of the outdoors, rugged athletic pursuits, the serenity of being close to nature, and the support of enduring and intimate friendships they developed with colleagues, neighbors, and family members. Forget Me Not" spans continents and tells the story of three people whose lives intertwine to a degree they could never have imagined.

I was simply overwhelmed (in a good way) by Jennifer's captivating voice, her beautifully descriptive passages of the beauty in her surroundings, her meticulous record-keeping to reconstruct the past, and her frank, introspective view of the meaning of it all. In the end, I feel she is the biggest hero here, even though she somehow manages to take a backseat and paint everyone else as larger than life. The presence of this technology – allowing the outside world to watch –devastated the dynamic of the group.

I felt that Lowe-Anker's narrative voice was one of the book's great strengths; the other was her artist's eye for description. 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. They travelled the world together, visiting various climbing locales in the United States and abroad. 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.Jenni's detailed recollections are beautiful, the letters she kept from herself and Alex are wonderful, and her open and honest reflection of living a life with a partner who was at times unbearably moody and at times so thoughtful and passionate was stunning. I see the film as a way of showing that, even after hardships, you can appreciate what you do have and turn it into something good. She has an artist's ability to really see something, and she's translated it for us, allowing readers to see what she sees, in all its color and movement and fragility. I discovered Jenni Lowe-Anker after I watched the documentary Meru, about her third husband Conrad's ascent of a highly technical and previously unsummited Himalayan peak.

There are some parts of this book that contain diary notes of their son Max and his writing is exceptional for a young man. Lowe and the photographer ran down the mountain as the avalanche started, rather to the side as Anker did.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. Her involvement with Conrad Anker, Alex's best friend and also a world-renowned climber, is also addressed. Her work has been shown alongside well-known western artists such as Thom Ross, Howard Post, Larry Pirnie and Donna Howell-Sickles.