I love the novel Stoner by John Williams. [ed: Since this was written I’ve read Williams’ Augustus twice and it has become one of my favorite novels.] One thing I appreciated is the way Williams writes about Stoner’s awareness of his physical self, especially his hands.
For example here where it seems to symbolize Stoner’s anxiety:
Stoner wet his lips and shifted on the chair. He tried to fold his large hands together so that they would be invisible. Kindle Location 402
And here where it shows us something about his curiosity:
Stoner became aware that his fingers were unclenching their hard grip on his desk-top. He turned his hands about under his gaze, marveling at their brownness, at the intricate way the nails fit into his blunt finger-ends; he thought he could feel the blood flowing invisibly through the tiny veins and arteries, throbbing delicately and precariously from his fingertips through his body. Kindle Location 326
There are several passages like this, revealing Stoner’s interior self through his observation of his exterior self. Good stuff.