Sundress Reads: Review of While Visiting Babette

Visiting Babette in whichever institution she resides in is routine to Ina, a regular activity despite the changing locations. On her latest visit, however, an oversight leads to irreversible consequences. Finding no one at the registration desk to confirm her relation to Babette, Ina foregoes waiting for a visitor’s pass and heads straight to Babette’s room.

A brief lockdown ensues, trapping Ina momentarily with Babette, but it is her “rookie mistake” (Meads 8) of running as soon staff unlock the doors again which seals her fate. Mistaken for a patient attempting an escape, she is locked in a room of her own. From thereon, the novella follows Ina and Babette, from Ina’s perspective, as the two cousins interact with other women, live at the institution, and weather controlled chaos.

Meads’s storytelling is enchanting due to its brilliant technique of feeding the reader just enough input to be tantalizing, a delicate balance in the space between repetitive and perplexing. We do not know why any of the characters are institutionalized, least of all Babette or Ina. It is up to the reader to question why Ina would’ve been kept at the facility at all past the initial misunderstanding; but because we do not see the process in between her attempt to run for it and her stay in a room of her own the next day, we are left to question whether the staff had evaluated her or simply decided she would stay on the grounds of their presumption. Meads writes:

“For instance, since arriving and being unable to leave, Ina had been led to believe that her tendency to dart and dash as well as her fear of windows could be overcome. […] The dart and dash stuff she rather enjoyed, though. The dart and dash reflex she would rather retain.” (71)

This is only one of the details Meads leaves up to the readers, merely giving us hints later that Ina may indeed be in the facility for a reason.

As the story unfolds, so do the layers of Ina and Babette’s backstory—we learn they’re orphans, that they stayed with an “Aunt Careen,” but beyond that, very little is clearly stated, creating a fitting unmoored effect for the reader, which marries nicely with what Ina must feel as a new resident at the facility. Adding to the isolated, dissociated mood of the story is Meads’s choice of showing us only a few of the women in the facility from a removed and limited perspective.

Interactions with characters like Clara, one of the residents and a writer of stories she likes to read to the others, reveal more information about the cousins: “They had no mothers, only aunts. As such they were perhaps not the best audience for mother mocking stories” (Meads 19). The small cast of characters we get to witness, due to our witnessing of them through Ina’s perspective and our limited understanding of them, serve Ina’s, and by extension, Babette’s characterization more than their own.

Ina and Babette’s “mind reading” is also a strong nuance, emphasizing the cousins’ connection in a tonally cohesive technique, but more importantly, highlighting their differences. Babette comes across as more assured, more mature while Ina seems to retain a more childlike quality.

What makes Ina’s and Babette’s characterization particularly intriguing is the way Meads intertwines plot and character into a seamless tapestry. The nature of who they are steers the plot more than any external force. Meads’s handling of time is equally masterful, guiding readers forward despite the floating quality of the character-centric plot. One such example is immersing the reader in Ina’s perception of the passage of time as she takes a test at the facility:

Meads proceeds to take us along said memory, allowing us to settle into Ina’s experience.

It is then entirely unsurprising that While Visiting Babette’s pace is exemplary for its particular plot. Short, punchy chapters make for perfect readability. Coupled with Meads’s talent for prose, with phrases like, “Although she was shrinking and Babette expanding” (Meads 45), this is a book you can easily read in a day (or one sitting if you have time)!

While Visiting Babette is a book readers will think about days after they’ve finished reading it, reflecting on its nuances and happily accepting Kat Meads’s invitation to wonder about her characters, their mystical world, and the untethered facility tinged with darkness.

While Visiting Babette is available through Sagging Meniscus Press