Last Thursday night Jerry della Femina and his wife Judy Licht hosted a book-party for their friend Dr. Gerald Imber who has just published his sixth book “Wendell Black, MD” in which a New York City police surgeon finds himself in the middle of an international drug-smuggling ring.
![]() | ![]() | Dr. Gerald Imber with his new book at a party given last Thursday night by Judy Licht and Jerry Della Femina at their East Side townhouse.
Click to order. | ![]() | | Judy Licht with Alexander Vreeland and his wife, Lisa Immordino Vreeland. | ![]() |
Dr. Imber in non-literary life is one of the most preeminent plastic surgeons in New York. He’s also an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. NYSD readers also know him as one of Da Boyz – Della Femina, Bergman, Greenfield, Kramer and Imber who often occupy a center table in the Michael’s melee on Wednesday.
I’ve known Dr. Imber for some time. I think I met him first when I interviewed him for a piece. He was known for also having a roster of male clients as he proposed that doing “little things” early kept the countenance fresh and good for the executive market place. I don’t know if he’s ever had anything done to himself but he wears a sunny disposish most times I’ve seen him, and if you didn’t know, you’d think the guy is just a laid back businessman (always looking as comfortable in a suit and tie as in a jacket and jeans) enjoying his visit to this small planet.
I describe him thusly because when we were chatting at the party the other night, I asked him when -- at what hour – did he (a working MD!) sit down to write? First of all, I asked him how long it took to write this book. (“About a year”). And when did he write it?
Well, he told me, he gets up at 4 a.m.(!!) and sits down to write until 6 a.m. Then he goes either to the gym or for a run in the Park (I can’t remember which, already being shocked/amazed by his early-ness.) Then he has breakfast and goes to the office to begin his day as a doctor.
And he and his wife travel; and keep a house in the country for weekends, where they see friends, lots of friends. And there were lots of friends at the della Femina/Licht reception. And not an ounce of apparent anxiety to move things along.
Book parties are always business, obviously, but this one looked like a big cocktail party among friends – lots of chatting/inter-chatting, happy to be there. Happy to toast their friend the doctor-uh-novelist-uh-biographer and beauty advisor. I haven’t read it yet but the reports I’m hearing from people who have, you can’t put it down. I understand there’s a tv or movie interest in it already. Dr. Wendell will be appearing in the next novel too, so you catch the doc’s literary drift these days.
|
|
