Gravel Shoulders is a fictionalized memoir. Fast moving and superbly written, Lawrence David Brown lets his protagonist tell the tale: a modern ballet dancer named Harry who drops out of Manhattan to hitchhike across 1972 America. While searching for missing pieces of his life, Harry runs into Kate, a reluctant hitchhiker who triggers old regrets. As the journey unfolds, Harry oscillates from present to past desperate to resolve nagging fears about his future as a dancer. Brown is a former professional dancer and offers this fictionalized autobiography about a pivotal crisis during Woodstock and the Vietnam War. During those uncertain times, Brown reflects on his 1950's childhood in Sacramento, California, boarding school on the Jersey Shore, College in Lynchburg, Virginia and the beginning of his dance career in Manhattan.