Lee Barnes has been getting some pretty good coverage lately for his new book published by Virginia Avenue Press, Car Tag.  He was recently on an online radio station called Red Velvet Radio; we listed two new reviews here and three previous reviews here; and there is more coming, we’ve been told.

We’ve believed in this great book since we first read the manuscript.  Every time we read it, we found more beauty to its tragedy and more depth to its characters.  It is a Nevada story, through and through, and it is classic Barnes.  We were never worried that the reviewers would see it any other way to be honest, but you never know how the reviews will return.

And now, we have two new reviews that, in our opinion, are the best yet.  Well, to be more accurate, one is not a review as much as it is a profile of Lee and the book.  It’s a great piece, in which Lee tells his interviewer not to steal his dog’s chair, goes off on a colleague for teaching through movies, disregards postmodernism (totally appropriately), and embraces existentialism as a literary necessity.  Here is a little piece below:

Feeling alive versus feeling safe, he says, is also a theme through “Car Tag,” addressing Billy’s troubled past. “The closer you come to some kind of danger, especially as a kid, the more alive we feel, and the more safe and secure our lives are, in many ways the less we really live,” Barnes says.

Read the whole thing here.  It is completely worth your time.

And take a look at this excellent review by the great Geoff Schumacher (formerly of Tonopah and Las Vegas and now heading up a paper in Iowa) in Las Vegas City Life.  It’s an excellent review, through and through, and we appreciate this little endorsement at the end:

That Barnes manages to flow all these currents into a coherent and fast-paced 128 pages is a testament to his still-evolving talents. Do the right thing: Buy this fine little book instead of the latest airport paperback and strike a blow for quality over marketing.

Read all of it here.

And remember, he’s reading and signing his work at Sundance Books and Music in Reno this Friday evening.  Details below:

What: A reading and signing with Nevada author H. Lee Barnes for his new book, Car Tag.

When: Friday, February 24, 2012 from 6:30 to 8:00PM

Where: Sundance Books and Music,  121 California Avenue, Reno, Nevada 89509