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?