why does james quit his job at the newspaper (The Boston globe)?

In November of 1982, James experienced an identity crisis that manifested in his career. He bounced from one reporting job to another, and became intensely frustrated with his mother: "It had gotten to the point where I didn't see why she made such a secret of it." Thus, he quit his job to focus on learning his mother's story. This was the beginning of his writing project, The Color of Water.