Why do you think James McBride wrote this book?

James McBride was born in 1957 to an African-American father and a Polish Jewish immigrant mother. There is hence much of this book that has a biographic feel to it. James grew up in the 1960' during the Civil Rights movement and he often saw conflicts manifested between his mother and his siblings (his biological father died of lung cancer). James wanted to examine his mother as a human being (we tend to see our parents as simply in their role as parents))and her struggles as a Jewish white woman divorced from her future and plunged into one that could be just as unforgiving. James has stated that to discover himself, he first had to discover his mother Ruth as a person.

why do you think mcbride chose to write a book about his mother