Manhattan, Kansas flourishes with pride and purple in 1969. Purple Pride banners, tee-shirts, and all imaginable forms of purple paraphernalia stood on display for Clint Andrews's return from service in Vietnam. Even Buster (Clint's Golden Retriever) wore a silly Purple Pride Pooch sweater at Kansas State Football games-chasing a purple Frisbee to entertain the inebriated punched-up crowd.
While Clint finishes a degree in nuclear engineering, action and suspense ensue when the FBI coerce the All-American Boy to become a covert operative. His mission: to infiltrate, observe, and report on counter culture groups (Black Panthers, SDS, Weather Underground, and White Panthers) at Kansas State University.
An easy gig, Clint thought. What could happen in Manhattan, Kansas? This small college town wasn't exactly a hot bed of social unrest or war protests. So, with the looks and skills men envied, and women loved, Clint quickly finds himself engrossed in the kind of clandestine social activities one can only have in a college setting. He succumbs to many of the wonderful campus opportunities that tempt him. Sports, Girls and good old-fashioned intrigue land him in a quandary as he struggles to confront challenges and is forced to choose between his two greatest passions-baseball and Sara Easler.
The Nuclear Kool-Aid Acrid Test is a thrilling romp about a normal, but bright young man who was challenged, motivated, and drawn by extraordinary circumstances-He sometimes withers, but adapts, thrives, and grows to confront these circumstances with a sense of humor, occasional provoked violence, and a unique style of his own.
Eric Clayton's first novel, All-American Boy, was published in 2004. All-American Boy is an exciting epic about college football and Vietnam. Eric wrote political essays and satire in the seventies, and worked in the private sector for thirty years.