Surf Avenue

Stephen Axelrod's father Solly had his son pegged for his news truck delivery route from the beginning. But Stephen knew there had to be something else out there. In Surf Avenue he shares the story of his life as a tough Jewish boy growing up in Queens and his quest to escape the blue-collar footsteps his father left for him to follow. Humor and resilience take Axelrod through the challenges of growing up in Cambria Heights Queens in the 1950s. His father a second-generation truck driver for the Daily News wishes for nothing more than to see Stephen in the driver's seat of his own truck hauling newspapers for a living. However despite steady work with union benefits this former high school dropout has an entirely different life in mind. Stephen's escape from Queens and his father's grip takes him on a poignant search for himself-and through a world without self-imposed boundaries or limits. From a stint in the US Marine Corps to a seat on the New York Stock Exchange an acting career and beyond Stephen's life takes many poignant and sometimes shocking swerves-with one constant: the secret insatiable desire for his father's approval. Can he find wholeness?