Carson McCullers Talks About Love

The doe-eyed, silky-voiced chanteuse Suzanne Vega tries to connect with the impish, bruised spirit of Carson McCullers in this admirable but limited literary cabaret act, which weaves 14 songs (by Vega and Duncan Sheik) into an account of episodes from the Southern gothic author's troubled life. It's essentially a concept album wrapped around a biographical sketch, and it would probably be best served as an audiobook or double CD.—David Cote