While Visiting Babette

by Kat Meads

Ina adores Babette and visits her cousin regularly in whichever facility Babette currently resides. She trusts Babette’s take on all things and has since childhood ("orphans cannot afford to be squeamish"), but on Tuesday’s visit, to her grave detriment, Ina fails to follow Babette’s advice when an “incident” throws all in chaos.

("I told you to hide, cousin,” Babette said sorrowfully…)

A one-way Alice in Wonderland, Ina now lives in Babette’s world of lockdowns, barred windows, displaced ducks, mashed potatoes, plays told as stories and stories told as plays, perpetual cleaning, howls in the night and far too many windows.

Staying sane isn’t as simple as it seems.

90 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 18, 2025

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sort of tragic tale that Shakespeare would envy. While Visiting Babette keeps the reader constantly on their toes, I was so focused on Ina, trying to figure out if she should be there or not or whether her cousin was actually real that when a random scene popped up like ducks appearing at a pond or another patient putting on a play, it threw me for a moment. This disconnected feeling from what was going on, is that what life was like for Babette and Ina?

I have really enjoyed reading this, it is a short book but crammed with a lot to contemplate, especially about mental health but also about what do ducks do when you empty their pond? A favourite part of this book was that is was all about the patients and their interaction with each other, you never see any of the staff, they are always there in the background but as Ina doesn’t want to face them so neither do we.

Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2026...

[Denise Tolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kat Meads finds truth in the oddest of places! While Visiting Babette takes on institutions and the institutionalized, women and strength, art and artists, belief and disbelief, choices and chances and making do. Words are currency in this book and you will want to save each one up to spend later.
In a library, Babette finds a line in a book that reads, "No imagination. That's what makes a beast." Let your imagination spend some time with Babette and Ina. This is a book as beautiful as it is fun. Stay young at heart and read a book that will transport you to another possibility.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, Ina! Please listen to your cousin Babette's advice! What a tangle not doing so will leave you in! Ina’s snarky comments throughout her ensuing problems endear her to us; a Kafkaesque plot compels us.

[David Galef · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Visiting Babette is one of the most perfect novellas I've ever read, starting with a woman accidentally locked inside a mental health facility with her cousin, Babette, who belongs there. Practically defines the term "quirky sensibility." Highly original prose without being convoluted. Really funny. Killer ending.