[olavk]

The book is extremely harsh, but I don't really think the law as expressed in the book is applicable to Scandinavian culture in general.

Also, the Law of Jante made him kill a sailor at a deserted bay in Newfoundland. So we should be careful when understanding the book as some universal sociological study.

In the book he states the law is a way for the lower classes to keep each other down, and he explicit states the law of Jante exists among the proletariat everywhere and is stronger in Brooklyn than in Jante (the fictional Scandinavian town in the book). He was a socialist, of course.

I do think a "soft form" of the law can be used to understand Scandinavian culture to some extent.