Along the sofa every three and a half feet, fluorescent tubes glow through translucent plastic diffusers.

Passers and would-be passers make every effort to be convincing in their chosen gender role […]

I feel my humanity returns as I escape the plastic cocoon, and feel like I've entered a different, plastic-less city altogether.

He became Mr. Koutsoftas’s koumbaros, a combined best man and godfather to Mr. Koutsoftas’s children, a role in the Greek Orthodox church that is the equivalent of family.