A Son of the Circus
E225157
A Son of the Circus is a sprawling, darkly comic novel by John Irving that intertwines themes of identity, sexuality, and cultural collision through the story of an Indian-born doctor entangled in mysteries spanning India and North America.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| A Son of the Circus canonical | 4 |
| The Son of the Circus (excerpt) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2021239 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Son of the Circus Context triple: [John Irving, notableWork, A Son of the Circus]
-
A.
The Circus
The Circus is a 1928 silent comedy film written, directed, and starring Charlie Chaplin as his iconic Tramp character, following his misadventures in a traveling circus.
-
B.
The Circus
The Circus is a 2008 studio album by British pop group Take That, noted for its theatrical themes and hit singles like "Greatest Day" and "Up All Night."
-
C.
The Circus
The Circus is a historic circular Georgian residential street and architectural landmark in Bath, Somerset, renowned for its elegant townhouses and classical design.
-
D.
The Circus of Adventure
The Circus of Adventure is a children's adventure novel by Enid Blyton in which the recurring young protagonists become entangled with spies and political intrigue while traveling with a circus.
-
E.
The Golden Stallion
The Golden Stallion is a 1949 Western film starring singing cowboy Roy Rogers and his famous horse Trigger, blending action, music, and adventure.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Son of the Circus Target entity description: A Son of the Circus is a sprawling, darkly comic novel by John Irving that intertwines themes of identity, sexuality, and cultural collision through the story of an Indian-born doctor entangled in mysteries spanning India and North America.
-
A.
The Circus
The Circus is a 1928 silent comedy film written, directed, and starring Charlie Chaplin as his iconic Tramp character, following his misadventures in a traveling circus.
-
B.
The Circus
The Circus is a 2008 studio album by British pop group Take That, noted for its theatrical themes and hit singles like "Greatest Day" and "Up All Night."
-
C.
The Circus
The Circus is a historic circular Georgian residential street and architectural landmark in Bath, Somerset, renowned for its elegant townhouses and classical design.
-
D.
The Circus of Adventure
The Circus of Adventure is a children's adventure novel by Enid Blyton in which the recurring young protagonists become entangled with spies and political intrigue while traveling with a circus.
-
E.
The Golden Stallion
The Golden Stallion is a 1949 Western film starring singing cowboy Roy Rogers and his famous horse Trigger, blending action, music, and adventure.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
novel ⓘ |
| author | John Irving ⓘ |
| authorNationality | American ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| followsWork | A Prayer for Owen Meany ⓘ |
| genre |
comic novel
ⓘ
dark comedy ⓘ novel ⓘ satirical fiction ⓘ |
| hasCharacterType |
circus performer
ⓘ
film star ⓘ missionary ⓘ twins ⓘ |
| hasElement |
circus life
ⓘ
crime ⓘ film industry ⓘ mystery ⓘ |
| hasSubgenre |
family saga
ⓘ
mystery fiction ⓘ |
| isbn | 978-0-679-41426-4 ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | postmodern literature ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla ⓘ |
| mediaType |
hardcover
ⓘ
paperback ⓘ print ⓘ |
| narrativeStyle | third-person narration ⓘ |
| notableFor |
blend of comedy and tragedy
ⓘ
exploration of cross-cultural identity ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| pageCount | approximately 633 pages ⓘ |
| precedesWork | Trying to Save Piggy Sneed ⓘ |
| protagonistNationality | Indian-born ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | orthopedic surgeon ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1994 ⓘ |
| publisher | Random House ⓘ |
| setting |
India
ⓘ
Mumbai ⓘ North America ⓘ |
| theme |
belonging
ⓘ
cultural collision ⓘ family ⓘ identity ⓘ religion ⓘ sexuality ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfSetting | late 20th century ⓘ |
| tone | darkly comic ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: A Son of the Circus Description of subject: A Son of the Circus is a sprawling, darkly comic novel by John Irving that intertwines themes of identity, sexuality, and cultural collision through the story of an Indian-born doctor entangled in mysteries spanning India and North America.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Son of the Circus (excerpt)