Martin Lockett grows up in a tough neighborhood in Portland Oregon and by the time he's fifteen, his parents don't know what to do with him. He and his homies steal cars, drink, and smoke dope and even though Martin's bright, the only time he does well at school is when he gets kicked out and has to attend alternative classes. As soon as he's returned to his friends though, he's right back into trouble. After Martin serves three years in prison for his part in a robbery, he finally seems to turn himself around. He gets a good job, moves up in the company, meets a nice girl, and he's proud to buy his first car. But his decision to get behind the wheel one drunken New Year's Eve, leaves two innocent people dead, several families destroyed...and puts the twenty-four-year-old Martin behind bars for nearly twenty years. In what he realizes is a Palpable Irony, it is in prison that Martin finally finds meaning and direction in life. Devastated by the tragedy he has caused, he takes advantage of the educational opportunities offered to him.
With his study of psychology, he begins to unravel the tangled threads of his life, gaining wisdom and insight that he puts to use in understanding his own youthful motivations and in counseling other young men, like him, who are headed straight for disaster. Penned within prison walls where the author still resides, Palpable Irony upliftingly chronicles a lost man's discovery of himself and his potential as an instrument for good.