Why did Marquez choose to begin his autobiography with an unexpected trip when he was 23? "Living to Tell" begins with "My mother asked me to accompany her to sell that house." At that moment, the young law student at a prestigious university had just decided to abandon his enviable studies for an uncertain career in literature. His decision distraught his mother. "To sell that house" was just the mother's excuse for her son to accompany her to her home town. What my mother really wanted...