The author uses the stereotype of mathematicians as serious, quiet, and reserved to immediately set up Catherine as a character that would not appreciate a fun-loving doorman who dances in the lobby and sleeps under his desk. However, given the genre, the reader knows from the start that they are destined to end up together.

It is not just Catherine who is portrayed as following this stereotype. The math department into which she is hired is shown to be colorless and lifeless, filled with unwelcoming professors who hide behind their undecorated office doors. Her department chair (or "dean"...see below) is even worse. He not only seems dry and boring but also abusive in that he forces Catherine to write a research paper by herself during her first two months at her new job and expects to be listed as first author even though he barely contributed. Fortunately, there is one more positive representation of a mathematician in the book, a friendly female co-worker with whom Catherine eventually publishes after she learns to stand up to her boss.

We are led to believe that, at least in Catherine's case, her stereotypical behaviors and appreciation of the cold certainty of mathematics are a reaction to a chaotic upbringing with an absent mother and eccentric father. In fact, I have not yet even mentioned the book's main plot, which is that Catherine nearly loses her new job when the HR office at her new university realizes that her birth certificate, Social Security number, and driver's license are invalid. She has to track down her real mother and accept help from Luca's family to correct the problem.

That Catherine is a stereotypical math professor is important to the book, but otherwise math is not mentioned very much. Here are some comments about the few times that it is:

• Catherine is a numerical analyst whose research involves new methods for solving hyperbolic equations and will be submitted to Studies in Applied Mathematics.
• Dr. Gupta is described as the "dean of the math department". That is not a thing. Departments do not have deans at any academic institution I know. They have "chairs" or sometimes "heads". A dean is a higher level of administrator who has many chairs below them.
• Dr. Gupta insists that Catherine write a paper in a short time and include him as an author. Contrary to the book's suggestion that this sort of thing is common, I am not aware of any actual instances in which administrators have demanded that junior faculty list them as co-authors. (It is not common, but I also cannot swear that it never happens.) However, what is completely unrealistic is the timeline. Two months is not enough time to do research, write a paper, and submit it to a journal. In my experience, most math research papers are the result of years and years of work. Two months would probably not be enough time even if Catherine had no other responsibilities; with four classes to teach, 28 students to advise, and committees to serve on (as we hear Catherine has at her new job), that would be impossible!
• Furthermore, although there is discussion in the book about who would be listed as "first author" on the paper, that generally is not a thing in math research. I know that in other fields, the order of authors on a paper is always a big deal, with the first and last especially denoting specific and significant roles. But, math papers just generally list the authors in alphabetical order and there is no particular rules about what it means if they are not.
• Catherine's father makes a horrible math pun about an "algae bra" when he meets Dr. Gupta, which Catherine then repeats to her friendly co-worker.