Third and Indiana is a novel written by Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez

Steven M. Lopez is an American journalist who has been a columnist for The Los Angeles Times since 2001. He is the son of Spanish and Italian immigrants.-Life and cars:...

. It is about the experiences of several people connected to 14 year old Gabriel Santoro, while living in the dangerous gang-controlled streets of the Badlands

Philadelphia Badlands

The Philadelphia Badlands is a section of North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States that in the 1980s and '90s became known for an abundance of open-air recreational drug markets and drug-related violence...

 section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The novel gave notoriety to the real life intersection of Third Street and Indiana Avenue, a real life intersection in the Fairhill

Fairhill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Fairhill is a neighborhood on the east side of the North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Fairhill is located in an area between Kensington Avenue and 6th Street ranging from York Street to Gurney Street/Clearfield Street...

 area known for the prevalence of drug dealers.

In 1997 Aaron Posner's play adaptation of the book was premiered and produced at the Arden Theatre Company

Arden Theatre Company

The Arden Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company located in Stockton-on-Tees, England. Founded in 2002 by Robert Icke and Daniel Hill, the theatre has grown quickly to become one of the premier theatre companies in the region...

 in Philadelphia.

On one occasion staff members of Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...

 and Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

 allied to option Third and Indiana for a film version; Oprah's group wanted a "happy ending." Oprah's option evaporated. Jones's found another group of investors who said they raised money for a film version and never executed any plans. Tom Bradford, a 35-year old Center City

Center City, Philadelphia

Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...

 resident, said that he would begin plans to make a film version of Third and Indiana.

Characters

• Gabriel Santoro - Gabriel, the protagonist, is a 14-year old boy who runs away from home and deals drugs on the street. Ultimately Gabriel is good at heart, and hopes to pull away from a life of drugs and violence. Brian O'Neill of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
  
  stated that he as a reviewer cared about Gabriel, the character.
• Ofelia Santoro - Ofelia, Gabriel's mother, frantically looks for Gabriel. She is 40 years old.
• Marisol - Gabriel's girlfriend, Marisol attends night school and works at a restaurant during the day.
• Eddie "Joe Pass" Passarelli - A South Philadelphia
  South Philadelphia
  South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west.-History:...
  
   Italian American
  Italian American
  An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
  
  , 38-year old Eddie loses his girlfriend, leaves a crumbling marriage, and finds that he has to pay a mobster named Thin Jimmy $10,000 U.S. dollars since the truck, driven by Eddie, had a fire and burnt. Eddie is nicknamed "Joe Pass" as a reference to the musician Joe Pass
  Joe Pass
  Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
  
  . He suddenly moves out of his Roxborough
  Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  Roxborough is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is bordered to the southwest, along the Schuylkill River, by the neighborhood of Manayunk, along the northeast by the Wissahickon Creek section of Fairmount Park, and to...
  
   house and moves into his mother's rental apartment in Kensington
  Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  Kensington is a neighborhood in the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is between the Lower Northeast section of Philadelphia and North Philadelphia. Not to be confused with the former Kensington District, now commonly referred to as Fishtown, the area modernly referred to as...
  
  . O'Neill stated that Eddie becomes a "raging bull" at the end of the book.
• Diablo - Diablo, an ugly drug kingpin, keeps Gabriel and the other gang members of the "Black Caps" under his thumb. O'Neill described Diablo as a "cardboard character straight from a Steven Seagal
  Steven Seagal
  Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...
  
   movie."
• Lalo Camacho - Lalo, one of Gabriel's close friends, is in the Black Caps
• Ralph - Ralph, one of Gabriel's close friends, is in the Black Caps
• Mike Inverso - Inverso is the shady friend of Eddie who constantly insults Eddie.
• Father Laetner - A Roman Catholic priest from Pittsburg, California
  Pittsburg, California
  Pittsburg is a city located in eastern Contra Costa County, California, the outer portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 63,264 at the 2010 census....
  
  , Laetner is shocked by the neighborhood and helps Ofelia in her quest to find her son. O'Neill states that Laetner is "two dimensional" and that Lopez made Laetner "incongruously agnostic" since Laetner "acts heroically." O'Neill added that Laetner did not seem to have awareness of "Christ's predilection for the poor, the basis for the liberation theology movement within the Catholic Church." O'Neill said "There are Hallmark cards that go deeper than this guy. (Has any American novelist since Willa Cather
  Willa Cather
  Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
  
   given us a believable priest?)"
• Bill Bagno - Bagno is a police officer and a Vietnam War
  Vietnam War
  The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
  
   veteran.
• Anthony Faggioli - The owner of the Faggioli Funeral Home, he helps Gabriel and Eddie steal the mayor's ring.
• Sarah Lerner - Sarah is Eddie's girlfriend. She leaves him as the story progresses. 43-year old Sarah is five feet and eleven inches tall, has red hair and green eyes, and does not decorate her nails. Eddie liked the fact that she was Jewish as she was distanced from his community. A substitute teacher at Temple University
  Temple University
  Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
  
  , Sarah lives in an Old City
  Old City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  Old City is a neighborhood in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in the area near e Delaware River where William Penn and the Quakers first settled...
  
   apartment before moving into Eddie's apartment. She leaves him at a later point in the book.
• Marie - Marie is Eddie's wife. She does not get along with him and feels betrayed when he leaves her.

Reception

In a 1994 review Ben Yagoda of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

said that "the novel is by no means a failure" and that it "flirts too recklessly with the outlandish and the hackneyed to be counted a success." The Fort Worth Star Telegram placed the book in "Best Books of 1994" list. Carl Sessions Stepp, the senior editor of American Journalism Review

American Journalism Review

The American Journalism Review is a U.S. magazine covering topics in journalism. It is published six times a year by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. The AJR has been owned since the late 1980s by a foundation of the university...

, described Third and Indiana as "touching, even haunting" and approved of the "balancing vision of human triumph." Brian O'Neill of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...

said that the central characters "redeemed" the novel, which had some cliche minor characters; O'Neill said that Third and Indiana is "worth reading."

Toby Zinman of the City Paper liked the book version; in regards of the play version, which she reviewed, she said she felt like she "watched an afterschool special with bad language

Profanity

Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

."